Charities – Salem Happenings

Last-Minute Gifts for the Gamer in Your Life

Searching for a great last-minute gift for the gamer in your life? Looking for a way to give to charity and get some great games at the same time? Well, if you are looking for a way to help others through gaming, there’s probably no better way than purchasing a Humble Bundle.

A Humble Bundle is a collection of games from either a single publisher or a group of publishers offered by Humble Bundle, Inc. in which a portion of each bundle purchased is donated to charity. Each of these bundles will contain a number of great games, including games from a wide assortment of well-known and independent publishers for a variety of different platforms, and each set of games is only offered for a limited amount of time. As a result, you never quite know what will be in the next bundle, but there’s no question that it will be something worth playing. Best of all, there is no set price on each bundle, so you can actually decide how much you want to pay and whether you want it all to go charity or you want to split it between the developers and the charity of your choice. In fact, most bundles will actually throw in some extra games if you pay more than the average or more than a set amount, so you can get more if you give more. For more information on the Humble Bundle, including which games and/or other software is currently available, please visit the Humble Bundle website.

Photo credit: portalgda via Visual Hunt / CC BY-NC-SA

Alex and Ani: Charity by Design

Do you have a friend, significant other, daughter, niece, or other individual in your life who’s really into charm bracelets and/or necklaces? Would you love to buy some jewelry as a gift and give to charity at the same time? Well, if you would, you’re in luck because it just so happens that Alex and Ani has a collection of bracelets that will allow you to do exactly that. In fact, Alex and Ani will donate 20% of the proceeds from any of the bracelets or necklaces purchased from their Charity by Design collection. This collection features a number of different designs and each design is associated with a different charity, including well-established charities such as the Alzheimer’s Association, the American Heart Association, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, March of Dimes, Toys for Tots, UNICEF, and a whole lot more. For more information and/or to purchase items from the Charity by Design collection straight from Alex and Ani, please visit the Charity by Design Collection page on the Alex and Ani website.

Photo via JamesDeMers via Visual hunt

Shop for Charity This Holiday Season

If you’ve been reading my posts from the past couple of weeks, you may have noticed that there is sort of a theme developing. This theme is, of course, charity, and with the Christmas season rapidly approaching, there is probably no better time to explore a sense of giving than now. In fact, with all of the events happening in the world around us, there is certainly no shortage of individuals who could use a hand. Fortunately, if you would like to try to alleviate some of the “darkness” around you, there are a number of ways that you can lend a hand to your friends, families, and communities this holiday season.

One of the easiest ways that you can help others this season, however, is to shop. Yes, you read that right. Shop. You see, there are a number of vendors who will actually donate some of their sales to various charities in order to not only help others but also to encourage you to buy more products from them. As a result, you may be able to support your favorite charity and get your holiday shopping done at the same time by using sites like Amazon Smile, which will give the charity of your choice 0.5% of everything you spend on Amazon. This means that you can actually help a local, national, or international charity without spending anything more than what you would normally spend on gifts this year anyway.

Some of the other major retailers that give a portion of your purchase to charity include Target (5% of their profits are donated to charitable organizations), Macy’s (approximately 7 – 8% of their profits are donated to charitable organizations each year), Walmart (they give hundreds of millions of dollars to charitable organizations each year in the form of grants), and a number of other companies that try to give back each time you make a purchase through their brick and mortar stores, their own websites, and/or websites like Shop2Care.

Photo credit: FutUndBeidl via Visual Hunt / CC BY

Veteran’s Day: A Great Time to Support Our Troops

The presidential election has finally come to an end, and all of the mudslinging, politics, and rhetoric that came with it has begun to dissipate (at least temporarily.) Unfortunately, the results of the election and the protests that have followed it (whether you believe they are justified or not) have only demonstrated just how divided a nation we truly are. In fact, the only similarity between the parties at the moment appears to be the universal shock that almost everyone is experiencing after the election’s outcome.

However, even though it may seem like the only thing we share is the disbelief that our candidate won or lost, there is actually one other thing that almost everyone can agree on. We need to support our troops. And, there is no better time to give back to the men and women who have risked their lives or lost their lives to give us the freedom to love or loathe our new president than Veteran’s Day. As a result, if you are looking for a way that you can help the members of our armed forces and their families today, you may want to consider donating to one of the charities listed below:

Air Force Aid Society

Fisher House Foundation

Hire Heroes USA

Hope for the Warriors

The Mission Continues

The Navy-Marine Corps Relief Society (NMCRS)

Operation Support Our Troops – America

Our Military Kids

United Service Organizations (USO)

Wounded Warriors Family Support

And, if you are a member of the armed services who is trying to figure out how to handle all of your expenses while you’re deployed or how you’re going to handle your expenses while you’re transitioning back into the workforce after your deployment, you may want to check out Bankrate’s guide on “Managing Your Finances Before and After Deployment“. This guide is designed to help service members and their families plan out ways to use service-related benefits such as savings deposit programs, tax-free pay, and thrift savings plans to handle the costs that service members may have to face both while they’re on duty and after they’ve returned.

Photo credit: Anthony Quintano via VisualHunt / CC BY