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.