Gift with purpose. Photo courtesy of CAUSEBOX.
You can gift any designer candle, but how much better if the one you choose provides solar light to under-serviced areas? You can buy the latest doll, but a handmade one that helps children around the world grow up strong is even better. You see the point: Your purchasing can power great causes. Here are seventeen unique gifts that give back.
The Gift: A contemporary kantha cotton quilt hand-stitched by artisans escaping the sex trade in India.
The Impact: A portion of proceeds support workers’ health care benefits, design training, and education.
Available at anchalproject.org, $372
The Gift: Ethiopian leather wallet with pockets for passport, cash, cards, smartphones, and ID.
The Impact: Sponsoring rehab, counseling, and skills training for women in Ethiopia’s sex trade through Women at Risk.
Available at parkerclay.com, from $48
The Gift: A small, stylish, zebra-wood bluetooth speaker with nice sound and long battery life.
The Impact: Providing hearing aids to those in need worldwide through Starkey Hearing Foundation.
Available at amazon.com, $100
The Gift: A beautiful, glass-bead warrior bracelet crafted by marginalized Maasai women in Tanzania.
The Impact: Makers receive twice the average national pay, retirement funds, paid maternity leave and vacation, health insurance, subsidized lunches, and access to legal, hygiene, literacy, and economics courses.
Available at sidaidesigns.com, $54
The Gift: Handsome, unisex frames to keep you from squinting in the field.
The Impact: Your favorite optical company makes monthly donations to VisionSpring, a non-profit that trains low-income men and women to sell ultra affordable (and stylish) glasses in underserved communities worldwide.
Available at warbyparker.com, $95
The Gift: A modern Guatemalan throw handwoven by artisans from a small village on Lake Atitlán.
The Impact: Each purchase gives a weaver and her family one month of electricity.
Available at shopspring.com, $128
The Gift: A quarterly subscription box for women filled with seasonal lifestyle products that give back.
The Impact: Backing socially conscious companies that provide jobs, meals, education, and clean water globally.
Available at causebox.com, $50
The Gift: Twenty pyramids of Ayurvedic green tea sourced from small-scale growers in Assam, India.
The Impact: Empowering farmers, investing in infrastructure, and granting scholarships to rural youth in developing countries.
Available at thelittlemarket.com, $12
The Gift: Adorable, hypoallergenic, hand-knit dolls that help children around the world grow up strong.
The Impact: Every doll sold provides 10 meals to kids through Children’s Hunger Fund and WFP School Meals Program.
Available at cuddleandkind.com, from $45
The Gift: A hand-loomed patterned pillow from the weaving collective of Waraniéné in Côte d’Ivoire.
The Impact: A percentage of purchases supports the village’s schools and maternity clinics.
Available at fiveandsixtextiles.com, $95
The Gift: A silk-blend scarf to keep the spirits afloat, printed from a NASA satellite image of the outer Aleutian Islands.
The Impact: With every purchase, $10 is donated to ANERA to improve the lives of refugees in the Middle East.
Available at slowfactory.com, $100
The Gift: Makeup-removing, blackhead-battling, activated charcoal bars made from the unused ends of soap logs.
The Impact: Twenty percent of profits go towards sanitation efforts in Kaberamaido, Uganda, and the slums of Mumbai.
Available at bare-soaps.com, $6.50
The Gift: A cotton bracelet made by underprivileged Cambodian artisans, mostly mothers, with a brass compass to guide you on your way.
The Impact: Ten percent of profits are donated to Free to Shine to fight human trafficking in Cambodia.
Available at thebravecollection.com, $95
The Gift: Ten-ounce soy wax candles inspired by aromatic exports from Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia, and Malawi.
The Impact: With each order, a solar light is delivered to a person living without electricity in Africa through SolarAid.
Available at onegridcandle.com, $28
The Gift: Protection from the elements in the form of a tan fedora made from salvaged wool.
The Impact: The Christian-affiliated non-profit syphons all proceeds to the cause of your choice: providing uniforms to school kids in Kenya and Haiti, or supplying work clothes to new graduates of the Atlanta-based job training program they fund.
Available at cyny.org, $70
The Gift: Your next day bag has enough storage — for keys, snacks, cords, laptop, and iPad — to keep you organized.
The Impact: With each purchase, State delivers one of their bags packed with supplies to an American child in need.
Available at shopspring.com, $95
The Gift: A lightly padded case for Macbook Pro and Air made with local textiles in Hohoe, Ghana.
The Impact: Workers receive fair pay, literacy classes, and money management training.
Available at dellala.com, $48
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORENeed more gifting ideas? Shop for Gifts Under $50 and peruse our guides for Adventurers, Armchair Travelers, and Frequent Fliers. Check out all the Fathom Holiday Gift Guides.
We make every effort to ensure the information in our articles is accurate at the time of publication. But the world moves fast, and even we double-check important details before hitting the road.
