A Chicken is not just for Christmas
Darren Rowse is a six-figure blogger. Last week he celebrated ProBlogger’s second birthday by “giving something back”. He raised over one thousand Aussie dollars to buy 110 ‘pairs’ of chickens for families living in poverty. That’s more than just chicken feed.
Darren put a percentage of his weekly blogging income into ‘buying’ chickens through Oxfam Australia. He invited his readers to contribute as well.
A “chook-o-meter” in his blog sidebar tallied the number of donated chickens.
If you have a blog, consider using it to promote the Oxfam Unwrapped catalogue. Since the first catalogue (launched for Christmas 2004), shoppers have bought 700,000 ‘gifts’ through the scheme. Oxfam UK told me that chickens proved a particular hit with shoppers in 2004, with 520,000 birds ‘delivered’ to communities where the charity works.
Oxfam America will launch its first ‘alternative gift’ catalogue next week.
Thanks to Britt Bravo for the tip off.
oxfam australia, oxfam unwrapped, problogger
October 7th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
Thanks for the link. I’ve subscribed via RSS.
October 8th, 2006 at 7:43 pm
Celeste – a pleasure. I remain a big fan!
November 23rd, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Oxfam UK is one of a few non-profits that let people fund exactly what they want (chickens in the case you presented).
MyGreenEnvelope.org, launching around December 1, offers such tangible donation opportunities from across the entire spectrum of causes, from hundreds of leading non-profits.
Visitors will be able to do more than select an organization to fund; they will choose exactly what they want to accomplish, such as protect an acre of the rainforest, fund an hour of a cancer researcher’s time, or provide books for children, drugs for AIDS patients, shelter for refugees, meals for the hungry, etc.
By making giving tangible and more emotionally rewarding, these donation opportunities become better alternatives to traditional gifts. Wish lists, registries and greeting cards further promote this more meaningful way of showing we care.
MyGreenEnvelope.org will do for non-profits what the mall did for shopping. And it will do for shopping something that shopping has rarely done for anyone: elevate our spirits and add meaning to our lives. MyGreenEnvelope.org will change not only the way money is raised, but also the way non-profits fit into people’s lives.”