In-kind donations

When will we stop praising people for giving “stuff”?

Thursday, May 24th, 2012

An article in the Huffington Post’s Impact section caught my eye as the HuffPo once again heralded what is essentially questionable donor behavior.

In this particular article a man went down to a Kmart which was closing it’s doors…

A Closer Look at TOMS Shoes

Monday, April 9th, 2012

Tomorrow is TOMS shoes annual One Day Without Shoes publicity event. I thought it would be a good time to highlight this podcast by Tiny Spark which takes a critical look at the founder of TOMS, Blake Mycoskie,…

World Vision’s Addiction to SWEDOW

Tuesday, February 7th, 2012

World Vision (WV) is standing by their prolific use of SWEDOW (Stuff We Don’t Want) in their development programs. According to their recent blog post in response to my previous post, they will continue to send…

NFL/World Vision Part II?

Sunday, February 5th, 2012

I’m interested in whether or not the NFL will again donate the 100,000 items with logo of the team that lost the SuperBowl to World Vision.

Last year’s donation ignited a huge debate that got World Vision into a public…

Daily Small Humiliations

Wednesday, November 23rd, 2011

I am in the process of writing a Holiday Guide to Charitable Giving. The guide will discuss charitable activities such as Sub-for-Santa, food donations, gift catalogs (donate a goat – for example), feeding the homeless, etc. In writing the guide…

Compassion on Sale

Monday, September 26th, 2011

This week’s guest post is from Juanita Rilling, Director of the Center for International Disaster Information (CIDI). The CIDI is an education organization that supports international relief through encouraging effective donations by individuals, groups, businesses, and communities.

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Ambulance Donations

Monday, July 11th, 2011

This is a guest  post by Jason Friesen, NREMT-P. Jason is a paramedic currently living in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where he works forProject HOPE developing a community-based prehospital emergency care program. Before working for Project HOPE, Jason founded Trek Medics International, a non-profit

“We Always Give What We Have, Not What People Need”

Monday, July 4th, 2011

This is a guest post written by Chrystal Hayling. Crystal writes about and consults with NGOs and social enterprises. She has 20+ years experience in the social sector, most recently as former president and CEO of the Blue Shield of California

A reader’s analysis of gifts-in-kind programs

Thursday, April 14th, 2011

One of my regular readers, Eric Isakson, wrote in with his analysis of Gift-in-kind (GIK) assistance. He has graciously allowed me to post his thoughts here.

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There are three parts to GIK that I think need to be…

Day without Dignity: Awareness raised, now next steps…

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011

This is a cross-post from Bonnie Koenig and her blog Going International. It’s a follow up to her post last week “Raising Awareness” towards what goal? for the Day Without Dignity counter-campaign.

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