The gifts you can give fall into several categories:

• Animals
• Clean Water
• Clothing and Shelter
• Education
• Emergency Aid
• Gifts that Multiply
• Girls and Women
• Handcrafted Items
• Hunger
• Medical Care
• Orphans and Widows
• Poverty in America

I love that you can choose what you want your money to go to or if you just want to help there is a “where most needed” category too. Purchasing gifts from The World Vision Gift Catalog is a great family project. Many families collect spare change all year long to donate to a charity at Christmas time, sending a gift through The World Vision Gift Catalog is a great family project that you can continue year after year.

The World Vision Gift Catalog Giveaway

One reader of The Mom Maven is going to win the ornament set pictured above. The set is available through The World Vision Gift Catalog with your gift of $150 or more to the Maximum Impact Fund — which provides for the unique needs of children and families worldwide — you will receive this beautiful set of handmade Zakale wire & bead ornaments from Nairobi. Zakale crafts are made from recycled materials by Kenyan artisans, who received a series of installment loans from World Vision to grow their business and lift themselves out of poverty. When requesting the ornament set, please note your gift is tax-deductible less the fair market value of $30.

Ornament sizes vary by animal (giraffe 4″ x 1½”, elephant 2½” x 3″ & water buffalo 2 7/10 ” x 2½”).

The giveaway ends at 12:00am on November 18, 2013 and is open to US residents only. The winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter and notified by email. The winner has 48 hours to claim their prize.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received a set of ornaments as a thank-you for sharing The World Vision Gift Catalog with my readers. All opinions are 100% mine.

The post World Vision Gifts that Give appeared first on The Mom Maven.

“The holiday season provides the perfect opportunity to honor a loved one and give a gift that has real-life implications on a family in need,” said Traci Coker, World Vision Gift Catalog national director. “As little as $16 can feed a family in the US for a day or put a smile on the face of a young child by replacing their makeshift banana leaf ball for a real soccer ball.”

The catalog offers more than 250 gifts online and in the print version ranging in price from $16 to $39,000. These gifts can be purchased in the name of a family member, teacher, co-worker or child, including many affordable items under $50. Gifts available include, but are not limited to:

• Goats ($75): One of the most popular gift items because its milk provides protein for children and the surplus can be sold. More than 20,000 goats were purchased last year.
• Feed a family in the US for a day ($16): Here in the United States, 1 in 5 children lives in poverty. Gift givers can help restore hope to families that have been struck by disaster, homelessness or job loss.
• A child’s education ($32): Supplying school fees, textbooks, paper and pencils will help a child reach their full potential.
• Beehive ($150): Beekeeping is a sustainable, year-round way to generate income and is a great source of nutritious, medicinal honey and beeswax.
• Traditional water well ($13,700): A well can provide more than 2,800 gallons of fresh water every day – enough for up to 300 people – for years to come.

The best part about these gifts is that they are self-sustainable. For example, goats given to communities in Africa are purchased inAfrica. This allows transformational community development within the most poverty-stricken villages. The gifts can also sometimes double or even triple, as shown in the box below on the right (The World Vision Difference).

World Vision has also designed a way for donors to see these self-sustainable gifts in action in real time through “The True Spirit of Christmas Tour.” For the third consecutive year, World Vision staff will be traveling across the world this December to see the impact that goats, sheep and other gifts have on families and children. Donors can follow “The True Spirit of Christmas” on Facebook at www.facebook.com/truespiritofchristmas.

Since the Gift Catalog was introduced in 1996, its popularity as a gift-giving medium has grown with more than $32 million in purchases made last year. World Vision hopes to reach $34 million this year. After purchasing a Gift Catalog item, the person whose name the gift was given in receives a special card describing the gift and its impact. Donors can also receive free handmade gifts such as ornaments from Nairobi and jewelry fromThailandwith a cash contribution to the Maximum Impact Fund.

To order from World Vision’s Gift Catalog, visit www.worldvisiongifts.org.  To order by phone or to request a print catalog, call toll-free at (888) 511-6511.

One of the gifts in the catalog is a beautiful Artisan Multi-colored Necklace: Fight human trafficking through this semi-precious stone and glass bead necklace. This unique, colorful strand can be worn long or short, as a bracelet or even a belt. You can win this necklace for your very own!!

Disclosure: I received a necklace as a thank-you for writing this post. All opinions are 100% mine.

The post Holiday Guide 2011-Gifts That Keep Giving-Beaded Necklace Giveaway appeared first on The Mom Maven.

This Easter, Hershey’s will donate up to a total of $5,000 to the Children’s Miracle Network together with bloggers.

How can we do this together? It’s simple:

• Participate to Hershey’s Better Basket Blog Hop of giving away virtual Easter Baskets by creating a blog post with specific rules described here.
• Hershey Company will donate $10 per each blog post to CMN, up to total of $5,000.
• One blog post per URL counts towards the donation, but you can give as many virtual Easter baskets as you want.
• The Hershey’s Better Basket Blog Hop will officially begin at 12 AM EST on March 18th and end at 12 PM EST on April 4th, 2010. Blog posts submitted to us before or after that time period will not be counted for.
• The blog post link has to be submitted to us for the donation to be counted.
• In addition copy and paste the following text in your blog post:

HERSHEY’S BETTER BASKET BLOG HOP RULES

• Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
• Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
• Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.
• Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
• Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
• Hershey’s is donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network (up to total of $5,000 by blog posts written by April 4th, 2010).
• Please note that only one blog post by each blog url will count towards the donation.

I am giving my virtual Easter Basket to….
Corrin at
You can join too! Even if no one gives you a virtual Easter basket-you can still write a blog post, link it up and pay it forward!

The post Bloggers and Hershey are Paying It Forward appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Throughout September, you can donate $5 to the cause by texting “KELLY” to 85944 from your mobile phones (standard text messaging rates apply) – or logging on to www.kelly-confidential.com. Also, every time you log on to the Web site, you’ll be entered for a chance to win an amazing contribution to your home – a luxury front load washer and dryer from Electrolux in Turquoise Sky, the color inspired by the teal ribbon of ovarian cancer awareness.

Also during September, visitors to Kelly Confidential can help spread awareness for this important cause by sending a virtual T-shirt to a friend. For every virtual t-shirt sent, Electrolux will donate $1 to the OCRF. Fashion-forward Moms can also purchase a limited edition T-shirt designed by Ripa; 100% of the proceeds from the sale of the T-shirts will go to OCRF.

I have sent my text and my virtual t-shirts, I hope you do the same. Please leave me a comment letting me know you have done your part too.

The post Join the Text-a-Thon for Ovarian Cancer appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Please join me and team up with Billy Ray Cyrus, in contributing to this very worthy cause. For every sandwich created as part of the virtual Sandwich Swap ‘n’ Share program on Facebook.com/hellmanns,Hellmann’s® and Best Foods® will donate 7 lunches to Feeding America®!

If that isn’t enough to get you to click over right now, you just might win something, too! Each sandwich created will automatically enter you for a chance to win a $250 grocery store gift certificate. And for every friend on Facebook® that you share your sandwich with, Hellmann’s® and Best Foods® will donate an additional 7 lunches to the charity.

So let’s get clicking on over to Facebook.com/hellmanns and help feed the hungry in America!

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Now for the good deed. Through Purex and Kiva I support Nancy (see widget in sidebar). So I entered the UPC code for the package that I opened onto the website and donated another $1.00 to Nancy. We have a long way to go to reach the $150.00 goal but we will get there. I will add the other UPC when I open that package. I did have 1 problem putting in my UPC code-they only allow one code per e-mail address per month-I have 5 e-mail addresses so I just used a different one this time.

If you haven’t already tried Purex Complete 3-in-1 laundry sheets, I hope you will, I love them. When you do use them don’t forget to come back here and click on the widget to add your UPC code and help Nancy. Together all of TheMomMaven family can raise the $150.00 Nancy needs.

The post A Bargain and a Good Deed appeared first on The Mom Maven.

Kiva® is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending web site, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.

I have chosen to support Nancy A. in Kenya. Nancy is a married mother of 2 children ages 5 and 2. She works hard to provide for her family and give back to her community. Nancy has started several buisnesses and is also training to be a volunteer community health worker. Specifically, Nancy has applied for this loan to expand the stock she carries in her grocery stand. I chose Nancy because she is a hard worker and give to those around her. Please click on Nancy’s link above or on the widget in my sidebar and help Nancy and her community.

If you do make a donation, please leave a comment here. It would be awesome if The Mom Maven family could meet the entire $150 of this loan!

The post Purex 3-in-1 Changing Laundry, Changing Lives appeared first on The Mom Maven.

How it works is simple—when you are surfing the internet you are already seeing ads that corporations are paying for you to see.  By joining Better The World and downloading its tools, you still see ads, but now 90% of the revenue from Better The World ads goes to a charity you pick.  And, as an added bonus these ads are all from companies that have social responsibility programs, social products and services, have products of interest to our members, or are non-profits.

By going to www.bettertheworld.com you can immediately start raising money by:

1.      Choosing a charity you are passionate about.
2.      Downloading a sidebar and Google-powered search toolbar (both seamlessly integrate into Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox).
3.      Surfing the Internet as usual.

So, for those of you interested in bettering the world, whether you are someone who already contributes but wants to do more, or you just can’t afford to donate to a cause quite yet, Better The World offers an opportunity to help the charity of your choice.  It’s a simple, but highly effective way of combining the power of the Internet and your desire to help make the world a better place.

Better the World is a new site I signed up the other day, chose my charity, downloaded the sidebar and periodically click on the ads in the sidebar. It only takes a moment to do something good. I am currently supporting The Children’s Miracle Network and my first goal is to raise $50 to pay for a nurse’s time comforting a sick child.

Please visit Better the World and check it out for yourself. If you choose to sign up please come back here and leave me a comment letting me know that you did, that way we can support each other in making the world a better place.

The post Tuesday Tip-Make the World a Better Place appeared first on The Mom Maven.