Deforestation, respiratory disease, poverty.

Three words we shouldn’t have to know.

Nearly half of the people in the world cook over open fire, which leads to: Deforestation, Respiratory Disease, and Poverty (http://www.theparadigmproject.org/why-stoves)

For $40 you can buy a Rocket Stove for a family. One Rocket Stove equals:

• $280 of income saved
• 1,300 hours of time saved
• 33 trees saved
• 60% reduction in smoke which stops 7.5mt CO2e from reaching the environment

What’s a Rocket Stove?

Used for cooking purposes in many third-world coutnries, the rocket stove achieves efficient combustion, ensuring a good draft into the fire, controlled use of fuel, complete combustion of materials, and efficient use of the resulting heat.

Why a Rocket Stove?

Cleaner burning, more efficient, simply better stoves reduce wood consumption and toxic smoke. This leads to a better life, a brighter future and social, environment and economic change.

More than 3 billion people in the world still cook over an open fire, leading to respiratory diseases, the deforestation epidemic and compromised safety and overall well-being. Over 2 million women and children die each year due to respiratory problems caused by cooking over an open fire. These respiratory illnesses are the #1 killer of children under the age of 5, more than Malaria or AIDS. (from Paradigm Project press release).

Read more about the Rocket Stove here: http://www.theparadigmproject.org/the-stove or check out this video:

Episode 3: Meet the Makers from The Paradigm Project on Vimeo.

Follow Greg and Austin around the world on out mission to 5 million stoves. In this episode you’ll meet the makers of the locally produced “JikoPoa”, which means the “cool” or the “right stove” and see the value that local production can add to reaching 5 million stoves.

The goal of the Paradigm Project is to deliver 5 million stoves by 2020, already 28,973 stoves have been delivered. It’s easy to help. Donate today!

Pick a campaign and donate any amount: http://www.theparadigmproject.org/donate

If $40 is too much, how about just one latte, or $5. We can all skip one trip to Starbucks can’t we?

Click image to see this full-size

Ok folks, here’s a simple one. Toys for Tots is feeling the pinch during these rough economic times. They’ve had a decline in gift donations this holiday season but we can change that.

The Coca-Cola Company announced an exciting national online gift drive to benefit Toys for Tots and your readers can help – without feeling an impact on their personal budget. Anyone can contribute by simply donating their My Coke Rewards points at www.mcr.com/holiday. Coca-Cola aims to raise five million points, which would enable Toys for Tots to put thousands of gifts in the hands of underprivileged kids. In addition, Coca-Cola is donating $120,000 to Toys for Tots, which will be divided among eight cities across America.

A detailed release can be found at http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/presscenter/nr_20101208_toys_for_tots.html, including more information on the Toys for Tots partnership and the My Coke Rewards program, as well as the many other Coca-Cola holiday activities planned such as special events, product giveaways, festive holiday packaging and new TV commercials featuring the music of Train.

Let’s give a hand and donate our My Coke Rewards points to this worthy charity. We can all be a part of putting thousands of gifts into the hands of underprivileged kids. What better way to celebrate this holiday season than to help others?

Join McDonald’s and “Give A Hand”

Submit a photo of your hand with a written phrase that shows your support for Ronald McDonald House Charities (RMHC) for a chance to win $500 for you and a $500 donation for your local RMHC House or Chapter.

Every day for 11 days a winner will be selected. All winners will be posted on @McDonalds

You can also purchase a paper “Give A Hand” for $1 at participating U.S. McDonald’s restaurants. All proceeds will be donated to RMHC. Here’s my entry!

Coco-Cola, through a special partnership with Facebook, is giving us a way to contribute to the Boys & Girls Clubs and a chance to get a sneak peak at one of their upcoming Super Bowl spots. If you’re like me, not only do I love the Super Bowl commercials but I love Coca-Cola commercials.

In order to participate you need to visit the Live Positively tab on the Coca-Cola Facebook fan page. From here you can share a virtual gift with your friends. By sharing a virtual gift, Coca-Cola will do the following:

Coca-Cola makes a one-dollar donation to Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

Gift recipients receive a special Coca-Cola bottle image, which is displayed on their Facebook page and newsfeed, reminding them and others they can also share virtual gifts.

Gift-givers receive a 20-second sneak preview of one of two new Coca-Cola ads that will debut during the Super Bowl broadcast on February 7, 2010.

Once game day arrives, gifters receive both ads in their entirety before their TV debut later that evening.

Coca-Cola will match every dollar contributed to the Boys & Girls Clubs (up to a total contribution by Coca-Cola of $150,000) and donate two My Coke Rewards points for every one point donated between now and February 15th.

This is a great program for a great cause. You can find out all the details at the Live Positively site and you can view a success story featuring Academy Award winner Denzel Washington on YouTube here.

The Case Foundation, Causes, and PARADE magazine launched the 2009 America’s Giving Challenge on October 7th and has already surpassed 10,000 donations and raised $250,000. Imagine that, in just one week they’ve achieved this!

Let’s get involved with this great program!

Details on the 2009 America’s Giving Challenge:

America’s Giving Challenge participants will compete for 30 days to bring in the highest number of donations for their nonprofit cause through the Causes application on Facebook. Causes that net the most donations will receive a total of $170,000 in prize money in addition to what individuals give during the Challenge. Based on the number of donations to their cause, participants can compete for daily and overall awards (ranging from $500 to $50,000) from now until November 6th at 3 p.m. EST. This year’s Giving Challenge builds on last year’s effort that saw $1.8 million raised for nonprofits.

Challenge participants can get involved in one of two ways:

1. Champion a cause – Individuals can become “cause champions,” individuals who are passionate about a specific cause and will compete to obtain the most donations for their cause through the Causes application on Facebook.

2. Promote, donate or join a cause – All individuals are encouraged to take part in America’s Giving Challenge by joining, promoting and donating to the causes they care about. Facebook membership is not required to donate to a Giving Challenge cause.

To register to compete in the Giving Challenge, view details, and donate to a cause, visit www.americasgivingchallenge.com. Additionally, the Case Foundation is on Twitter at www.twitter.com/casefoundation, and you can follow news on America’s Giving Challenge with hashtag #AGC. (You can also check out a video of Matt Damon supporting America’s Giving Challenge here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Y32CyumTI8!)

Wow, The Fresh Air Fund had nearly 8,000 children enjoying their best summer yet. If you recall, we featured The Fresh Air Fund back in July for the NYC Half-Marathon they hosted.

Check out the latest here. The Fresh Air Fund 2009 Summer Memories video is worth the visit. From their News Facts section:

2009 Summer Highlights:
• Nearly 8,000 children enjoyed their best summers yet
• 370 students participated in the Career Awareness Program
• 11 counselors-in-training spent three days on the Appalachian Trail
• 168 young people were Leaders-in-training

That’s what I call a success! Keep up the good work and let’s get behind and support these organizations.

Top Five Ways to Give Online (courtesy of replyforall)

5. Give Your Name. Signing petitions to Senators or foreign diplomats may seem like it won’t make a difference, but sometimes just a collection of people taking a stand has real power. Just look at Amnesty International’s track record. They’ve been relying on your names to help repeal laws, obtain stays of execution, and secure the release of hundreds of prisoners in foreign countries. Sign Amnesty’s petition to free US journalists Laura and Euna.

4. Micro-Volunteer. You don’t need money to give time, and now with companies like The Extraordinaries, you don’t really need that much time, either. Just download one of their phone apps, and you can volunteer with those ten minutes you’re waiting at the doctor’s office. You can help translate a nonprofit page into a foreign language, fact check for reporters, review congressional bills, even tag images for the Smithsonian. So you can do what you can, when you can, and still make a difference.

3. “Friend-raise”. Social networking is a great way to keep in touch with friends, acquaintances, and family members. And now, it’s a great way to raise awareness about your favorite nonprofit or cause. Over 26 million people actively use the Causes application on Facebook, and influence others to join their cause. You can support your cause by merely inviting your friends to join or posting your charitable actions in your status message.

2. Transform your search engine. We’ve ushered in a new age of technology, relying on search engines for answers from the momentous to the mundane. Why not fight desertification, global warming, and habitat loss at the same time? Don’t just search, Ecosearch. Ecosearch is a search engine that uses Yahoo technology and helps reforesting trees and safeguard water resources in the Amazon region, which constitute today one fourth of the fresh water reserves of our planet.

For every 10,000 searches, Ecosearch and Aquaverde (their nonprofit partner) plant a tree in the Amazon and in the Canary Islands. The website even keeps a running count of how many trees have been planted and how many more searches are needed to plant another tree.

1. Donate your email. What better way to make a donation than to have someone else pay for it? replyforall is a free cause email signature that is automatically inserted into your outgoing email messages. You choose your cause, personalize the information to appear in the signature, and you’re all set! replyforall then shares the advertising revenue with its nonprofit partners allowing you to donate without cash. Now you can raise awareness, drive donations for your cause of choice and monitor your impact all by doing what you do everyday – email.

Wow, great news from DonorsChoose.org. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will fund 50% of any classroom project request that preps students in rural and high-poverty schools for college. The catch is that the rest needs to be funded purely by citizens like us. 50%! That’s pretty damn amazing.

Things we can fund are college prep books, science equipment, etc. School is starting up soon (or just started as is the case for my daughter’s kindergarten class). Let’s fund some projects!

Watch a video featuring Stephen Colbert to learn more.

Thanks goes out to Matt for another great suggestion. Thanks Matt!
This time its Small Can Be Big, an organization that takes 100% of every donation and applies it to a specific expense or urgent bill to help a family in need and keep them from homelessness.
They do a way better job of explaining the process on this page. But the gist is:

This is where you come in. When you lend your support to a family in need – whether it’s $3 or $300 – 100% of every penny you give goes directly toward addressing a specific family need. No middlemen. No hidden costs. No time wasted. Just an uplifting, tax-deductible gift that goes to a landlord, utility company or hospital awaiting payment.

This falls in line directly with the model of Skip a Lunch. Small donations that in masse can create change, help, or hope. Please check it out and in their words, “Help more directly, more personally, more locally, more shared.”

On August 16th, Fresh Air Fund will be hosting their NYC Half-Marathon. Last year the NYC Half-Marathon was a huge success, raising $125,000 which goes to programs for NYC children.

Learn more here.

Since 1877, The Fresh Air Fund, a not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer experiences in the country to more than 1.7 million New York City children from disadvantaged communities. Each year, thousands of children visit volunteer host families in 13 states and Canada through the Friendly Town Program or attend Fresh Air Fund camps.