Lazy Philanthropist

Barilla is offering a Celebrity Italian Table Cookbook (with some yummy menus) for free. For every copy that is downloaded they will donate a $1 to America’s Second Harvest. So click on the link below and download the book.  The 1 dollar will provide 16 meals to people. So do it now!

I have looked at the recipes (I am a foodie) and I can endorse that these are are above average recipes. And there are many I want to make.

http://www.celebrityitaliantable.com/Pages/Index.aspx?WT.ac=HPbanner_celebItalianTable

and sing.

We can’t always sit in our chairs and be lazy (as appealing as it may be). Sometimes getting up is good for circulation, provides needed bathroom breaks, and sometimes involves singing.  If you are in the San Diego area on 1st and 3rd Sundays there is Karaoke. How is this going to help the world you say? My singing scares small children you say? No need to fear! There will be no children present.  And if you sing  Freebird or I will Always love you (like you have always wanted) you have to donate money to the San Diego Music Foundation which sponsors music in public schools. Looky there. Your horrible singing did help children.

More info

http://myspace.com/toocoolforkaraoke

You want to give a present but you also want to help out a charity here are some cool charitable gifts to give:

Red Cross Store has vintage t-shirts that are very current. It doesn’t look like you are schlocking a cause. They also have some stylish first aid and emergency kits. https://www.redcrossstore.org/shopper/ProdList.aspx?LocationId=5

RAINN always has nice stuff in their online store. Especially if you are a fan or know a fan of Tori Amos they have a calendar with some beautiful painted images of Tori. They also have tees, jewelry and music.
http://store.rainn.org/

Dog Lovers wine club is a wine of the month club (which can also be done bi-monthly or quarterly) that not only sends you wine with customized dog labels they also help rescue and animal shelters across the country.
http://www.dogloverswineclub.com/?affiliatecode=HSUS

There are probably loads more out there. It may be a little work (and I know we are all lazy) but take a little time to look for awesome gifts that give back. You can give a present to someone and give to charity at the same time.

and you want to prove it

http://www.freerice.com/index.php

A site that for every word you correctly define you give rice to people who need it.  Seriously you thought all of those stupid words you learned for the SATs were going to just rot your brain out.  Now you can give those words back to those who really need it.

If you order Flowers through FTD 15% of your purchase will go to the Children’s Miracle Network.  You need to choose a hospital from this page (http://www.childrensmiraclenetwork.org/ftd.php)  to give the monies to the kids.

and you will give books for kids to read. You can answer trivia questions at http://www2.firstbook.org/ericcarle . For every question you answer correctly, you get to choose a state. The 5 states with the most votes will each get 20,000 copies of the Eric Carle book The Tiny Seed. The books will be distributed through First Book. First book is a nonprofit organization that gives new books to low-income families.

Answer quickly, you have until June 16, 2007.

If you go to http://www.lays.com/#Home and redeem the bag of  lays chips you just ate, 25cents will be donated to the Make-A-Wish foundation.  They have to be a “specialty marked” bag of lays and you have until 9/1/07.

Is Microsoft’s new campaign to get you to use their IM service. You download Windows Live Messenger, you choose a charity listed, and they will donate unspecified amount of money to that charity. The will not put a cap on the funds raised and each charity’s Microsoft Messenger page has a theme pack you can additionally download. The organizations Microsoft is helping are: American Red Cross, Boys and Girls Club, Humane Society, National Aids Fund, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, NineMillon.org, Sierra Club, Stop Global Warming.org, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, Unicef.

For more information- http://im.live.com/Messenger/IM/Home/?source=IMDB_SponsoredPage

You can donate your airline miles to the Fisher House. They help military service people and their families. If you donate during the Memorial Weekend, CNN will match the airline miles. For more information go here,

http://www.fisherhouse.org/programs/heroMilesDonate.shtml

If you aren’t gonna use them, why not donate them?

By downloading Working Class Hero by Green Day through iTunes, you will help people in Darfur Sudan.

Amnesty International is releasing an album of John Lennon covers to raise money for the Sudanese.  More Information can be found at http://www.instantkarma.org/index.html

The Green Day song has been released early and is now available through iTunes.   If you don’t have iTunes, the full album ( titled Instant Karma) will be released on June 12.