Looking for a way to save money on gifts — who isn’t? Give the best gift of all – and it won’t cost you a penny. Volunteer to help a green charity of your choice. And you can do it right from your home computer.

“Virtual volunteering” is on the rise. And a wide range of groups need your help. You can pitch in with groups devoted to the environment, human rights, disaster relief, animal protection, and more. As a virtual volunteer, you provide skills these organizations need, such as contacting donors or writing letters or grant proposals or other materials they need to publish or post on the Web.

Good Green Charities

To find great environmental charities, go to The Charity Navigator web site, a great guide to intelligent giving, and they will provide you with a list of the best charities in all kinds of categories. You can even break it down by location, if you’d rather volunteer the old-fashioned way – in person.

· Click here for a list of the Top 100 four-star-rated environmental charities recommended by the Charity Navigator:

· Sierra Club, devoted to preserving the environment for the next generation:. Their motto says it all: “Explore, enjoy and protect the planet”: http://www.sierraclub.org/

· The Nature Conservancy, which has protected more than 119 million acres of land and 5,000 miles of rivers — and operates more than 100 marine conservation projects globally.: http://www.nature.org/

Good Charities

Here are some others to consider that were listed by Bottom Line newsletters as willing to engage virtual volunteers. If your favorite charity is not among them, contact them and propose helping out virtually – and start a new trend.

· Network for Good, founded by America Online, Cisco Systems and Yahoo (866-650-4636, www.networkforgood.org).

· Points of Light Institute, a Washington, DC-based organization that recently merged with a similar group, the Hands On Network (202-729-8000, www.pointsoflight.org).

· Taproot Foundation, which puts together teams of working people who want to help charitable groups (415-359-1423, www.taprootfoundation.org).

· ServiceLeader.org at the University of Texas at Austin (512-232-7062, www.serviceleader.org).

· VolunteerMatch, my organization, with volunteer opportunities from more than 55,000 nonprofit organizations (415-241-6868, www.volunteermatch.org).

· UN Volunteers, an arm of the United Nations that can be contacted by E-mail at information@unvolunteers.org and by phone in Germany at 49-228-815-2000. Its Web sites are www.onlinevolunteering.org and www.unvolunteers.org.

· Wisconsin and Minnesota-based Nibakure Children’s Village (612-578-6560, www.nibakure.org) recently needed three volunteers to work online two hours a week on fund-raising for an orphanage in Rwanda.

· Family-to-Family (914-478-0756, www.family-to-family.org), an organization that helps feed families in needy communities nationwide.

(Illustration credit: Sierra Club)

Do we need more stuff? No. But we all need to eat. And there’s no lovelier gift for friends and family than gathering everybody together – and NOT cooking. Dining out is definitely a splurge, but the beauty of this gift is that the giver gets to enjoy it, too. Naughty, but nice. And if that isn’t the holiday spirit, then you can just put a lump of coal under my Chanukah tree.

So pick an eco-friendly restaurant in your neighborhood, and tell everybody, this is our gift: Friendship, fun, family spirit – and FOOD. There’s no reason not to make it fine food, while you’re at it. So here are the Top 10 Eco-friendly Restaurants that Bon Appéti magazine picked for 2008, where the fish is line–caught, the meat grass–fed, birds are cage–free and the rest is local, sustainable, organic and all-around mouth-watering (and oh yes, healthy).

THE TOP 10 ECO-FRIENDLY RESTAURANTS
1. Primo – Rockland, Maine
2. Firefly Grill – Effingham, Illinois
3. Hook – Washington, D.C.
4. Ubuntu – Napa Valley, California
5. Café Cenizo – Marathon, Texas
6. The Kitchen – Boulder, Colorado
7. La Provence – Lacombe, Louisiana
8. Spoonriver – Minneapolis, Minnesota
9. Blue Velvet – Los Angeles, California
10. Local Burger – Lawrence, Kansas

If none of these are in your neighborhood, go to the Certified Green Restaurant Association and find places that have been certified as green – or are working towards those estimable goals.

For more always delicious food ideas, go to Bon Appetit.

(Photo Credit: Local Burger restaurant)

1. Buy a live tree – the smell beats plastic — and plant it in your backyard come the New Year. If you’ve given up your car in pursuit of the greener life, you clever soul, here’s a good list of sources for live trees online, delivered to your door.

2. Decorate with solar powered LED Christmas lights – They save power and money and are a step beyond plain old LED lights, which are a step beyond the traditional strings. They can range from $20-60, but here’s a source for $19.99 from Solar Illuminations.

3. Use one present to wrap another present — like a napkin or tea towel or scarf around a ceramic mug or box of organic dark chocolate.

4. Choose 100% recycled wrapping paper – or a decorative bag that you close only with a ribbon so the recipient can then easily recycle the bag for their gift to someone else.

5. Unwrap presents SLOWLY – it helps to savor the delicious moment of anticipation AND you can carefully fold the pretty paper and use it again next year.

6. Buy gifts that use no batteries or rechargeable batteries.

7. If you must go the mall, carpool with friends and family – make it into a little party as you travel there and back.

8. Stock the house and the refrigerator with food that is local and organic – it’s fresher and healthier.

9. Tired of STUFF? Give food and local/organic wine as presents. Who doesn’t like home-baked cookies?! No time for that? A bottle of wine from a local vineyard is always welcome. A good olive oil comes in handy, too – and the mono-unsaturated fatty acids are great for health-conscious friends. Whatever the yummy food, if the label says organic and local, it’ll show you really care.

10. Save money decorating the house with holiday cards – hang a string from one corner to another and hang all the beautiful cards you’ve received from the line – like a laundry line. It’s colorful and festive and a reminder of what the season is really about – nurturing ties to friends and family.

(Photo credit:

]]> http://www.goodgreentips.com/2008/12/10-tips-for-a-greener-healthier-money-saving-christmas/feed/ 1