Gift Giving Guy

This Christmas, one of our gifts will be a donation in honor of my mom. She volunteers at her parish’s food pantry to help feed families in need. So my wife and I are dedicating a charitable gift in her name to our region’s food bank, part of America’s Second Harvest, the largest hunger relief organization in the U.S.

JustGive.org makes it easy to make an online donation this holiday season. If you are uncertain about the recipient’s precise giving interests, JustGive.org offers a clever solution: an electronic charity gift certificate. These certificates allow the receiver to go online and direct money to any of one million U.S. charities. JustGive.org does deduct three percent of your gift — but only to cover the credit card transaction fee.

If you are ordering a specific donation, decide if you want the charity to receive your name, address, or e-mail address. You may opt to remain anonymous, sending the donation solely in the recipient’s name. Next, you can write a personal message to your recipient, up to 1,000 characters, for the e-mail announcement. Select whether or not you want to reveal the donation amount. Finally, decide if an e-mail announcement will go directly to the recipient or straight to you. If you e-mail the announcement to yourself, you can print the message and present it in person, perhaps inside a Christmas greeting card.

Other online giving options include:

• Network for Good (one million charities to choose from)
• TisBest Charity Gift Card (works with more than 200 select charities)
• Charity Choice Gift Cards (redeem cards that benefit more than 100 charities)