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15 Last-Minute Gift Ideas 8

by Chad Mumm on December 24, 2008 at 12:01 AM



For the conscientious, give a gift to charity:

It's the age-old question: What to give someone who already has everything? How about letting them give to someone else? Most charities let you donate in someone's name, but donorschoose.org gives the giver the opportunity to pick exactly where the money will go. It's Web 2.0 for philanthropy: Schoolteachers and administrators create projects proposals and post their needs to the site. Donors fund the project of their choosing, in part or in full. Gift-cards are available and donations are tax deductible (for the buyer, so cha-ching!. When you donate $100 or more, the happy children will even send you thank you notes and photographs showing them launching watermelons with the 16-foot trebuchet you bought for Central Middle School's 8th grade physics class.

Or take the tech route and head over to Laptop.org, home of the fabled OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) project. This nonprofit aspires to give children in developing countries easy to use, low-cost laptops. Buy one for a kid around the world for $199 and get one for yourself for $399 on Amazon.com. If you decide that laptops might not be your donor's thing, then head on over to The Nature Conservancy (nature.org). There you can give to preserve plants and animals by protecting the lands and waters. Talk about the season of giving...

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