Starfish Impact supports social enterprise and companies with strong corporate social responsibility programs throughout the year, but we know that there is no better time to remind our friends about how easy it is to ‘do good’ than during the holiday gift giving season. This year’s three part Holiday Gift Guide list has a few great experiences, products, and online purchases that will make you feel good about gift giving this year! If you missed last week’s Los Angeles local favorites to the Holiday Gift Guide, be sure to review those ideas and for more inspiration, there’s last year’s gift guide, which includes a number of great options worth checking out.
Local – Washington, DC
Order your holiday meal, or share a meal with friends, from Foodhini, a nonprofit that connects immigrant chefs that make multicultural foods with hungry DC’ers. With their shared revenue model, Foodhini empowers members of immigrant communities that often face financial, educational, and cultural barriers that can limit their access to sustainable living wage jobs.
Pick up some juice or order custom blends for your next cocktail party by getting in touch with Misfit Juicery. They are helping to minimize food waste by using recovered ‘misfit’ fruits and vegetables in their cold pressed juices. Makes us think of DC Central Kitchen, another favorite founded by Robert Egger who is now in Los Angeles with LA Kitchen.
Did you or someone close to you get engaged over the holiday season? Then point them to (or take a look yourself at) DC based Heartful.ly, an online gift registry that allows couples to offer giving back in lieu of traditional celebration gifts. The online platform also recently partnered with GlobalGiving and features vetted charities, specific projects, and real time tracking and reporting so that everyone feels the impact of their gifts. They recently also launched a specific Holiday giving section on their site where you select a project in need, donate to it in honor of your gift recipient, and then send a special note with the news.
Purchase art from Roots Studio! This local studio offers limited edition, unique art prints in partnership with artists in rural India. They enable rural artists to participate in the global economy without leaving their villages. Fifty-percent of each purchase is returned to artists and their community, of which 5% is set aside for a community fund, which furthers artists training. For the holidays, check out their Winter Collection which includes gifts such as stationary, tea towels, and coasters.
This holiday season, many millennials are dealing with significant student loans that eat into their paychecks. For those dealing with student loans, invite them to check out and set up an account on Pay Your Tuition Foundation and be their first funder in lieu of a holiday gift. This DC based social enterprise is working to harness the power of technology, data, and networks to help lower student loan debt. As a plus for you, your gift over the platform is tax deductible and helps grow the micro loan economy!
Stay tuned for next week’s Holiday Gift Guide for favorites available online!
Starfish Impact doesn’t receive anything in return for highlighting these companies and social enterprises. If you know of other great ideas for the holidays, or other social enterprises we should know about, let us know today!
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