My 2011 Donation to Emergency Fund

Every year I set aside a portion of my Etsy shop earnings to donate to an organization that is doing great things for our world. I also like to tell my followers about that organization. In the last few months I haven’t talked about this much but if you were around my blog earlier, you’d know that in 2011, the organization I chose to donate to was the Emergency Fund, based here in Chicago.

The Emergency Fund helps low income Chicago area individuals and families who are struggling with a crisis or life change. EF helps these people get money for the small things that most of us take for granted, things that nonetheless make a huge difference to others. EF doesn’t just help them get money and resources they make it easy to do so. I wrote about my own family’s experience with crisis and how difficult it was for us to get the resources we needed. We were fortunate to have family and friends who were beyond generous. Without them, I don’t know what we’d have done, because the service orgs I went to either had no resources or had near-impossible hoops for me to jump through in order to receive help.

After contacting the Emergency Fund about donating to them this past year (it’s a good idea to get an org’s permission before attaching their name to your personal work, like an Etsy shop donation), I got to know a few of the employees and was able to attend a couple events. I went to their annual reception and got to meet people who work at the partner agencies where EF disburses their funds. I got to hear the stories of people who have been helped by EF, and the stories of people who have been touched by their involvement with EF. I was also invited to go to one of the partner agencies on a site visit. We went to Inspiration Corporation, an organization that helps homeless individuals find housing, job training and resources to get off the street.

I’m excited to share that I’ve just made my annual donation to the Emergency Fund! It’s not much in the grand scheme of things, but it’s my small part, and I know it will be used to help someone. Maybe it will buy a monthly bus pass so someone can look for a job or get their sick child to their specialist appointments. Maybe it will help pay an electricity bill, or help with groceries. Maybe it will help pay for a night in a hotel for someone who went through a situation like my family did.

I’ve decided that instead of looking for a new organization for 2012, I’m going to continue to support the Emergency Fund this year. They’re doing big and exciting things to help those in need and I want to be a part of that!

THANK YOU to all who have supported my Etsy endeavors in any way – this donation is yours, too!

Charitable Businesses to Check Out!

I love the opportunity my Etsy shop has given me to benefit my community – via financial donations, in-kind donations, volunteer opportunities and networking. I’ve met some incredible people and organizations through the charitable endeavors of my shop and I want to share some other businesses who give back! When you buy their awesome stuff, you’re not just supporting an independent business owner, you’re supporting a good cause as well!

Jewelry By Design – Philip Voetsch is the owner of Jewelry By Design and is also the designer of this gorgeous Blackberries cluster pendant. I know of this store in Kansas City through my friend Carrie who works there and has her own jewelry shop, Zarily, at Etsy. You can shop in the store or you can shop online, but whichever way you do it, purchasing something from the Blackberries collection means a donation will be made to Harvesters, the Kansas City area food bank! Jewelry By Design has a really active Facebook page where you can see customer testimonials. Jewelry By Design designs, creates and sells their jewelry and they can help you re-create old jewelry that you don’t wear any longer. If you’re looking for unique, high-quality jewelry, this is the place I would go!

Holly Knitlightly – Holly is a Twitter pal of mine, and dude – check out the awesome knitted stuff in her shop! She’s got a collection of cowls right now in a variety of colors and what I love is that she styles them on her models in a offbeat way. I would have just thought to hang that sucker around my neck! For EVERY ITEM sold in Holly’s shop, she donates a knitted square to the charity Knit-A-Square, which puts them together to make blankets for orphaned children in South Africa. Go Holly!!

Jac and Elsie – I got to know Jaclyn when we worked together on a blog post for the Handmade With Purpose blog earlier this year. Jaclyn’s shop offers a great variety of items because she works with new, repurposed and vintage jewelry and accessories! Certain sales in Jaclyn’s shop go toward Autism and Cancer charities, like this customizable necklace that will benefit Autism Speaks, which is the United States’ largest organization dedicated to the research, treatment and cure of Autism. Love to see handmade artists who give back via their shops!!

Sweatshop of Love – I’ve written about taking a knitting lesson from Allyson before. I just love her. She’s so funny and unique and is a knitting FIEND. She is what I point people to when I say, “Knitting isn’t just for Grandmas!” Well – Allyson has been working on a project for a friend who is establishing an organization called WORK+SHELTER that will help women who live in the slums of New Delhi, earn money to improve their lives. Allyson created 4 of the CUTEST patterns, which have been donated to her friend’s organization. The women in New Delhi will use those patterns to create knitted beautimousness that can be sold. Additionally, when you purchase one of Allyson’s WORK+SHELTER patterns (so you can knit them up yourself), 50% will be donated to the WORK+SHELTER organization! Thanks Allyson!!

Now, if all that shopping has worked up a hunger . . . and if you’re in the Memphis area, stop by Mama Mia’s Pizzaria and grab a slice! Ok, maybe they don’t sell by the slice – I mean, it IS Memphis . . . but you can get a whole pizza! Because you’re really hungry! From all that shopping! And supporting communities! Word on the street is that Mama Mia’s donates to local sports teams as well as the Special Olympics – I’m telling you, when I know a local business supports their community, I get loyal, FAST. So take note, all the rest of you pizzarias – give back to your community!

Check out the Handmade With Purpose blog. It hasn’t been active for a few months (it’s activity was concentrated in spring 2011) but there are still links in the sidebar to all kinds of shops that donate to their communities in some way. Plus, in the blog posts you’ll see specific items for sale in shops that give back. Get to clicking and see if anything catches your eye!

What businesses do you low that support their communities?

Small Change mattered to Eboni

Hooray! Another great update from Chicago’s Emergency Fund, the organization I’ll be donating 10% of my Etsy profits to this year. I’m posting some of the stories they send to supporters so you can have an idea of what impact they make in the Chicago area.

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Small Change Mattered to Eboni

Small Change Matters

In our day-to-day lives, it's easy to forget that these three words are true.  But here at the Emergency Fund, we know that small change does matter.  It mattered to Joseph.  It mattered to Roxanna and Lashon. It mattered to Charlie.     

And it certainly mattered to Eboni.  

It was a sunny, March afternoon in Chicago, and seven-year-old Desaree couldn’t wait to get outside. It was the first warm day of the year, and she grinned when she heard the familiar music of the ice cream truck jingling toward her grandmother’s house.

As usual, Desaree finished her ice cream before her sisters and ran to her cousin’s blue scooter while her family sat on the front porch. When the bullet struck her head, she didn’t know what had hit her.

Desaree’s mother, Eboni, was startled awake by banging on her front door. Pregnant with her fourth daughter, she was napping before her evening security shift when she awoke to face her worst nightmare. No one could even tell her where Desaree had been shot.

Eboni waited for hours as Desaree’s condition was upgraded from critical to guarded. She kept vigil over her first-grader’s medically induced coma. She was there every time her little girl woke up from surgery. And when Desaree was released a month later, Eboni knew she would do whatever it took to keep her daughter safe from the gang that had begun harassing her family.

Eboni found a new home in a safe neighborhood – she could pay the rent, she just couldn’t afford the security deposit. Small change for some of us, it was an insurmountable obstacle for Eboni.

That’s why the Emergency Fund is here. We provide the small change that empowers our clients to get back on their feet and keep going. With our help, Eboni moved her family away from the violence and into a safe home.

Small Change Matters for people like Eboni. Whether it’s a bus pass to get to a job interview, or a security deposit that helps a family move into a safe home, when someone is close to the edge a small change can make all the difference.

Please, make a donation to the Emergency Fund today. Together we will make the small change that changes lives.

Donate today and your new or increased gift will be matched* by an anonymous donor!

*Double your impact! An anonymous donor is matching all new or increased gifts. That means that 100% of first-time gifts and gifts from donors who have not given since 2008 will be matched. For those who gave in 2009 or 2010, any amount above the highest annual gift amount in 2009 and 2010 will be matched.

John couldn’t wait that long

Hooray! Another great update from Chicago’s Emergency Fund, the organization I’ll be donating 10% of my Etsy profits to this year. I’m posting some of the stories they send to supporters so you can have an idea of what impact they make in the Chicago area.

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Here at the Emergency Fund, we know that our promise to provide help immediately and without red tape is crucial to our clients. It's especially important when the person in need is facing a tragedy so unexpected that they had no possible way to prepare for it. That's what happened to John.

Fifty-year-old John is a hardworking father, a man who had proudly raised his children with his wife, Becky. He thought he was done with parenthood and had happily settled into the life of the doting grandfather when tragedy struck.

John's son, Bill, and Bill's girlfriend were killed in a car accident, leaving their three children, ages 11, 5, and 2, to John and Becky. After paying the funeral expenses, John and Becky had no savings left and were struggling to feed their grandchildren.

John worked with a Fund Manager who helped him sign up for food stamps and enrolled the family in a monthly food pantry program. But it can take weeks from signing up for food stamps to actually receiving them, and the food pantry was still weeks away.

John couldn't wait that long.

With the Emergency Fund's help, John was able to feed his grandchildren until more permanent help was available.

Donate today and help the Emergency Fund be there for people who need help right now.

Content from the Emergency Fund website.

Please, make a donation to the Emergency Fund today. Together we will make the small change that changes lives.

Donate today and your new or increased gift will be matched* by an anonymous donor!

*Double your impact! An anonymous donor is matching all new or increased gifts. That means that 100% of first-time gifts and gifts from donors who have not given since 2008 will be matched. For those who gave in 2009 or 2010, any amount above the highest annual gift amount in 2009 and 2010 will be matched.

Meet Deborah’s Divas!

Time for an update from Chicago’s Emergency Fund, the organization I’ll be donating 10% of my Etsy profits to this year. I’m posting some of the stories they send to supporters so you can have an idea of what impact they make in the Chicago area.

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Lashon at Home in the Courtyard at Deborah's Place

Lashon and Roxanna know what it’s like to have nowhere to go. Like every woman living in the Rebecca Johnson apartments, they were homeless before they came to Deborah’s Place. For Lashon, moving into the apartments three years ago really was coming home, “My grandmother lived in the building across the street when I was growing up, so I knew the area well.” Now, Lashon works alongside Roxanna and the rest of “Deborah’s Divas” to ensure that every woman who moves in feels that she, too, has come home.

Each of the 90, single-occupancy units in the building is small but comfortable. While the layout and size differ, each has a private bathroom and a small kitchenette, leaving enough room for a single bed, a chest of drawers, and a small table.

When a woman moves out of Deborah’s Place – always in her own time, there are no limits to how long a woman can stay here – maintenance goes through to ensure that everything is clean and in working order. That’s when the Divas get to work. “We’re the unofficial welcome crew,” says Roxanna. “We make it feel like home.”

On the day that we visited, the Divas had just finished preparing apartment 403 for a new tenant. Walking into that warm, welcoming room would make anyone smile. The light, white quilt they had chosen for the bed was turned down at the corner to reveal cheerful blue and yellow striped sheets. Pots and pans stood at the ready in the kitchen, and two jade knick-knacks perched on top of a chest of drawers caught the eye. A candle on the bookshelf promised a citrus scent, and the stripes theme continued in the bathroom with a freshly-hung shower curtain.

But without a doubt, the first thing the new tenant would notice would be the table. The napkin-wrapped silverware sat next to the new, cream-colored dishes. Everything was meticulously placed, a perfectly set table for two that promised afternoons of conversations with friends new and old.

As I looked at the Divas’ handiwork, I tried to imagine the woman who would move in. A woman who had had nothing of her own for at least two years – the time it took to move to the top of the waiting list. Living in and out of shelters, staying with friends when she could, forced to sleep on the streets when there was nowhere else to go. Until now.

Finally, finally, that woman would have somewhere to go. She would get her own keys to her own place, open the door, walk into this room, see what these women have done - and realize that that place is home.

“When you’ve been living in shelters or on the street, and then you put that key in the door and see that you already have dishes and towels, that the bed is made – that says it all,” Lashon says.

Content from the Emergency Fund website

Please, make a donation to the Emergency Fund today. Together we will make the small change that changes lives.

Donate today and your new or increased gift will be matched* by an anonymous donor!

*Double your impact! An anonymous donor is matching all new or increased gifts. That means that 100% of first-time gifts and gifts from donors who have not given since 2008 will be matched. For those who gave in 2009 or 2010, any amount above the highest annual gift amount in 2009 and 2010 will be matched.

What difference can $560.32 make?

Here’s another update from Chicago’s Emergency Fund, the organization I’ll be donating 10% of my Etsy profits to this year. I’m posting some of the stories they send to supporters so you can have an idea of what impact they make in the Chicago area.

Lillia knows that Small Change Matters

$560.32

That's how much Lillia, a little girl with nothing but a Small Change jar and a determined attitude, raised at this year’s Annual Meeting and Reception.
What's that? You didn't think the evening was meant to be a fundraiser? Neither did we! But with a little bit of encouragement from her father, Fund Manager of the Year Carl Wolf, Lillia convinced Community members to dig deep anyway.

$560.32

That's enough to buy 249 bus passes, 51 bottles of laundry detergent, 28 IDs, or 11 work uniforms. It's enough to prove that Small Change Matters. Thank you Lillia, for your hard work, and thank you to everyone who contributed that evening.

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I can’t wait to blog more about Emergency Fund’s annual reception and the Small Change Matters campaign!

Please, make a donation to the Emergency Fund today. Together we will make the small change that changes lives.

Donate today and your new or increased gift will be matched* by an anonymous donor!

*Double your impact! An anonymous donor is matching all new or increased gifts. That means that 100% of first-time gifts and gifts from donors who have not given since 2008 will be matched. For those who gave in 2009 or 2010, any amount above the highest annual gift amount in 2009 and 2010 will be matched.

Lunch at the Shelter

A few weekends ago, my kids and I joined my friends at High 5 Functions to prepare and serve lunch at Lincoln Park Community Shelter.

Mural on the wall at LPCS. LPCS was recently awarded “Partner Agency of the Year” from Emergency Fund, the organization I’m donating 10% of my Etsy sales to this year. It was just a coincidence that my friends at ^5 chose to do a volunteer event at LPCS, a very cool coincidence!

LCPS is a comprehensive social service agency serving adult men and women who are experiencing homelessness. LPCS has been providing shelter and other basic needs to Lincoln Park’s homeless neighbors for 25 years. Today, LCPS provides interim housing, meals and a targeted array of social services to over 300 people each year. (from the LCPS website)

Check this out – I’m connected to LCPS in another way that I just realized, when looking up their website to get a description of their services. I’m a student in the Non-Profit Management program at North Park University, and the LCPS website says: At the annual symposium hosted by North Park University’s Axelson Center for Nonprofit Management Lincoln Park Community Shelter was honored with the prestigious Alford-Axelson Award for Nonprofit Managerial Excellence! This is a competitive field each year, with previous winners such as The Night Ministry, The Cara Program, and Deborah’s Place.

Bennett (9) and Kori (11) eating a healthy breakfast of iced honey buns, waiting for the el (elevated train) to Ana’s house. We left Rian (3) at home with Daddy. He can help out when he’s a bit older.

First, we went to Ana’s apartment to prepare the food.

Here’s the ^5 team: Curt, Kelli and Ana. You’ve seen them before as a pirate, parrot and mermaid when they raced in the Chiditarod. These awesome folks are among my very favorite former co-workers, and though we don’t work together anymore, we’re still buds. You would be hard pressed to find smarter, funnier, cooler people with more energy and interest in the world around them. Love, love, love them. They are each rising stars, too – super awesome at what they do.

We were quickly put to work. The kids were given multiple copies of the placemats which had menu selections on the opposite side.

Their job was to color up the placemats, and they took the directions to “be creative” seriously. They began using the salad bowl as a spot to personalize each placemat. They started with Chicago sports team names/logos and then moved into country flags.

At one point, a Kelli and I came into the living room to see how the kids were coming along, and were telling the kids we liked the creativity they were using. We notice Bennett had just finished coloring a salad bowl with the German flag on it, and began writing something . . . we watched as each letter was formed, and seemed to understand what he was writing at the same time. Kelli and I both said, “Ohhh . . . OH! Um, ok, no, Bennett, I don’t think this one is going to make it to the shelter. Your sentiment is in the right place, but . . . no. Inappropriate.”

Later, on the kitchen counter, an iPhone covered up the important part, allowing the placemat to send a very different message. This placemat is now awesome fridge art at Ana’s. I should note that I had to confiscate one more placemat that said R.I.P. and had a picture of the Undertaker (professional wrestler). No more messages, Bennett. ;)

So! While all this was going down in the living room, I was helping the rest of the team & volunteers in the kitchen and dining room. That’s me, holding up a tomato.

After cooking up a hearty tomato soup, packing up the sammich fixins, mixing, freezing, cutting & bagging the peanut butter rice krispie treats and putting together the salad, we were ready to go!

Lincoln Park Community Shelter is housed in the basement of Lincoln Park Presbyterian Church. 

   

The kids hung out in the conference room and played games while we got busy in the kitchen.

We butterrmarginerenened a whole lotta bread . . . and yes, that’s what we called it. The word changed every time we said it. That’s me & Curt next to all the margereinereetterd bread.

Lacey checking an order to be sure she was making the right sammie. That’s Jenny behind her, you may recognize her as the first mate from the Chiditarod!

Royal modeling his apron, daydreaming of a weekend at Martha’s Vineyard, while Jessica stirs the soup. Royal kept us laughing all afternoon. 

Ana was our grill master – we served a few different versions of grilled cheese sandwiches. It was pretty awesome – the lunch guests all raved about the food. The sandwiches were a hit, the soup was complimented over and over, the salad was called a “perfect summer salad” and everyone was happy that we brought a dessert that wasn’t chocolate. Take note, Chicago – serve something besides chocolate once in a while, dang! (You are free to always serve me chocolate). Oh, we also served tasty lemon water and cucumber water.

Kelli and Jenny prepare salads . . . closeup below!

 

Here’s another great mural in the dining room.

We didn’t take a lot of photos of the guests, we didn’t want them to feel as though they were on display for us. I do want to note that everyone was exceptionally nice and appreciative of the time we spent there and of the quality of the food. Lots of compliments, smiles and thank yous all around. I would LOVE to serve here again, and I really want to go back and learn more about what LCPS does for the community.

The staff at LCPS were so kind and let us take over their kitchen. They thanked us over and over. One of the guests was helping out in the kitchen when we first got there, she was cleaning out the refrigerator and needed some help cleaning up some water that had spilled on the very bottom of the fridge. I’m crazy short, so I said I would do it, but she refused immediately, and said, “You are already doing so much here. No way.” That felt great, and we were so happy to serve, but the most credit should go to the people who run the shelter and the guests who also give of their own time and energy to help keep the place in working order and good condition. All the guests were appreciative of the lunch we prepared and thanked us many times. One guest wrote a special note of thanks to us on her menu.

Big thanks to the High 5 Functions team for setting up the volunteer session at LPCS and organizing the day. And even more thanks for continually spreading the word to their friends, co-workers and community members that serving our community is a fun and worthwhile way to spend some time. If you’d like to keep updated about the interesting ways they’ve gotten involved in our community, follow along on Facebook!

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Random, but on the way home, we saw a wedding party up on the Fullerton el stop. Dunno if their ceremony was there, but they took pics there. Fun!

Changing Lives: Charlie and Maria

I’m excited to bring you some updates from Chicago’s Emergency Fund, the organization I’ll be donating 10% of my Etsy profits to this year. I’ll be posting some of the stories they send to those on their email list so you can have an idea of what impact they make in the Chicago area. Below is the first story!

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If you met Charlie, you would see a regular eight-year-old boy. You would never guess that he was born three months early, that he weighed only one pound at birth, or that, as a result, he has permanent breathing problems.

This winter Charlie's mother, Maria, noticed that he was having more trouble breathing than usual, and that his symptoms were at their worst when she turned on the dirty gas furnace. Maria knew that using electric heaters to warm her home would be costly, but with her son's health on the line, she didn't have a choice.

Maria did what any mother would do, but that didn't help her pay the electric bill. With no one else to turn to, Maria came to the Emergency Fund for help. We helped Maria pay her electric bill, and a Fund Manager at Renaissance Social Services provided her with information on furnace cleaning.

Today Maria doesn't have to worry about keeping the lights on, and, now that the furnace has been cleaned, Charlie can breathe easy.

* * *

Next week I’ll be going on a site visit with Emergency Fund staff, and will then blog about the visit. Can’t wait!

Please, make a donation to the Emergency Fund today. Together we will make the small change that changes lives.

Donate today and your new or increased gift will be matched* by an anonymous donor!

*Double your impact! An anonymous donor is matching all new or increased gifts. That means that 100% of first-time gifts and gifts from donors who have not given since 2008 will be matched. For those who gave in 2009 or 2010, any amount above the highest annual gift amount in 2009 and 2010 will be matched.

Crisis Fatigue

Where I work, we occasionally have small discussion groups called “Difficult Dialogues”, which are open to employees and students alike to attend. There is always a specific topic – something that isn’t super easy to talk about – and they’re considered a time when you should be free to share your thoughts without fear of judgment.

One I went to last year was on the topic, “What Are the Conditions of Your Giving?”

We talked about what what conditions must be met before we give our time and resources to people in need. For example, what reasoning do we go through in our mind to decide if we’re going to give cash to a panhandler? What about to charitable organizations, or disaster relief situations? What prompts us to give to some and not others? What must the recipients do, or do for us, in order for us to give? It was a really thought-provoking discussion. We talked about how we feel about panhandling (very common in Chicago), whether we give anything to those who ask. Who we don’t give to and why. What we give (money, food, discussion, cards with info about shelters, etc).

One thing we talked about quite a bit, that I hadn’t really thought of as being related to this topic, was going through fatigue. Giving fatigue, crisis fatigue, save-the-world fatigue.

This discussion happened sometime after the February 27^th, 2010 Chile earthquake. How do I know this? Because we talked about how after the Haiti earthquake (from January 2010) received such news coverage and we all felt so heartbroken and tied to that event. We all gave money and helped raise money and talked about Haiti. It was in the news, you couldn’t get away from it.

But then just 6 weeks later, a massive earthquake happened in Chile and there was mass destruction and loss of life as well. And the world – we – didn’t respond the same way.

Some of us in the room said that we had a personal connection to Haiti, and we think that’s why we responded so strongly to Haiti and not to Chile. But most of us agreed that we were experiencing fatigue. We couldn’t handle seeing any more images of devastation. We couldn’t seem to find the motivation to get out and fundraise again, so soon after Haiti. We were ready for lighter things like funny movies and focusing on our families and going about our normal lives. We were just worn out from all the heartbreak and didn’t have the energy or motivation to go through it again.

We examined this a few ways, but I’m bringing it up now because I see it happening again.

If you’ve been following my blog awhile, you know that I’ve been involved in raising some money for the Red Cross to benefit relief efforts in Japan after their huge earthquake & tsunami. I got really involved in those efforts, and I got involved in the Handmade With Purpose blog’s efforts, and I got involved with the Emergency Fund, who I’m donating some of my shop proceeds to.

And then, tornadoes started developing across the Southern U.S. (article & video in that link from Weather.com)

I was raised in Wichita, KS – we have tornadoes every year and there’s always some damage. Every few years, a major tornado causes horrible damage & takes lives, somewhere in our region in Kansas, Oklahoma, sometimes Arkansas or Missouri. So this is the sort of thing I personally know pretty well and feel a strong connection to. Normally, I would be ALL OVER drumming up participation in some sort of fundraiser or putting together lists of orgs you can donate to, sharing info about the individuals who are doing small but important things on their own to help.

But I haven’t. I’m worn out. I don’t know what the official name for this is, but I have crisis fatigue. And I feel guilty about it.

I know that the world’s problem resolution doesn’t reside on my shoulders alone, and that I can’t be expected (by myself or anyone else) to give over-the-top energy and work to every important cause that presents itself. But I still feel sad that I’m . . . not more sad.

Have any of you experienced this? I’m sure you have, I imagine it to be a really universal thing. I suppose I want to explain why I haven’t jumped on this . . . and why I won’t be able to jump on every crisis that happens. Even the ones that might have a more personal connection to my life.

Etsy Gameface Update: Handmade Philanthropy

I’ve set some goals for myself, hoping to make improvements to my Etsy shop and things connected to my shop. You can read about the way I’ve stepped up my game with Facebook, blogging and Twitter here. Want to know what else I’ve been doing? Read on!

I’ve gotten more involved in philanthropic efforts in the handmade community. I’ve been donating 10% of my Etsy sales to charity since opening my shop, have done special promotions in my shop where all sales were donated to crisis relief efforts and have donated items from my shop to things like auctions and giveaways for good causes.

Upcycled Vintage Necklace, donated by skeptis to the Love For Japan shop.

Over the last month, I’ve been exposed to a lot more people who are doing great handmade work for good causes. It started when I was talking to handmade people, trying to figure out what we could do to help raise money for relief efforts in Japan. I have been so impressed by how many handmade artists and bloggers have stepped up to donate time, money and their art to help those in need. I was able to participate in a Twitter chat devoted to using handmade shops and blogs for philanthropy, and through that, became connected to a blogger/shop owner who was organizing an effort to spend the month of April focusing on blogs and shops that donate to great causes.

You’ve seen me blog about both of these big efforts – the Love For Japan shop and the Handmade With Purpose blog. Both of these efforts highlight the giving spirit and wonderful artistry of MANY people and it’s been an honor to be involved in each. I feel that I’ve found something I can stay passionate about and want to continue in this direction.

Sunshine/Grey gathered clutch, by MoxieMandie, who is donating a portion of sales in April as part of Handmade With Purpose

I’ve also been really fortunate to be connected to a great organization for my sales donations. Once a year I select a new org to donate to, and this year’s org, the Emergency Fund, has been extremely receptive to my interest. I’ve been in touch with a contact from their development (fundraising) department and am excited to have been invited to attend an event of theirs and get to know their organization better – and it’s been less than a month since I approached them about donating sales to them this year!

So – with these 3 major things happening all at once and so recently, I’ve been on a bit of a “handmade philanthropy” high and feel like this may be something I can really grow into. Even when I feel like I’m in a rut creatively or am just not in the mood to sew or knit, I get instantly energized when I hear about a cause that needs promotion. Lindsay from the Handmade With Purpose blog and I have talked about putting together a “How To” series for handmade philanthropy, which will hopefully come to fruition soon. Maybe someone is trying to tell me something?

There’s still more to say about my efforts to improve my shop, so keep an eye out!

Has your shop been involved in any philanthropic efforts? How was your experience? Do you have any questions or concerns about getting involved in stuff like this?