It's So Easy to Give!

Every day, I hit two different websites that let me do something good. It's quick. It's easy. And it's worth it. Take the time to put these URLs in your Favorites and help make a difference.

The first site is Xerox's Let's Say Thanks website. The URL is http://www.letssaythanks.com/. The website gives us an opportunity to send a free printed postcard to US military personnel stationed overseas showing our support and appreciation for their service to our country.

Several homemade cards scroll by, made by students across the country. Once you select a card, enter your name, hometown, and state. Then you select one of the comments already typed up. Click Submit and you're done. That's all there is to it. You've just sent a card to a military member!

The second website is The Click to Give Site. You can 'click' daily and sponsors will cough up the money for various causes. In all, there are six tabs across the top of the screen that allow you to get sponsors to donate. You can get to all of the sites from any one of the following URLs. (I pulled the following verbiage from the site listed.)

The Hunger Site was founded to focus the power of the Internet on a specific humanitarian need: the eradication of word hunger. Since its launch in June 1999, the site has established itself as a leader in online activism, helping to feed the world's hungry. On average, over 220,000 individuals from around the world visit the site each day to click the yellow "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button. To date, more than 200 million visitors have given more than 300 million cups of staple food. The food funded by clicks at The Hunger Site is paid for by site sponsors and distributed to those in need by Mercy Corps and America's Second Harvest. 100% of sponsor advertising fees goes to our charitable partners. Funds are split between these organizations and go to the aid of hungry people in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and North America. The URL is http://www.thehungersite.com/tpc/THS_linktous.

Your click on the pink "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button helps fund free mammograms for women in need — low-income, inner-city and minority women whose awareness of breast cancer and opportunity for help is often limited. Your click is paid for by site sponsors, and mammogram funding is provided to clinics throughout the U.S. through the efforts of the National Breast Cancer Foundation. The URL is http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/tpc/BCS_linktous.

The Child Health Site is dedicated to funding simple and very effective preventatives and treatments with the goal of robust child health around the globe. Your daily click funds the administration of Vitamin A to prevent life-threatening childhood illness and disease as well as one preventable cause of childhood blindness; the manufacture and fitting of children's prostheses so that a child injured by a landmine or other accident can still walk, run and play and still has a fighting chance to be a productive contributor in his or her society as an adult; eye surgeries that can reverse one kind of childhood blindness; and HIV testing that will alert medical personnel that a mother may pass the infection onto her child at birth so that she can be treated and the newborn spared of this terrible disease. When you click, once per day, every day, you are helping to get these types of treatments and services to the children who need them most. On average, over 70,000 individuals from around the world visit the site each day to click the blue "Click Here to Give - It's FREE" button. To date, more than 100 million visitors have helped more than 2,161,000 children. The URL is http://www.thechildhealthsite.com/tpc/CHS_linktous.

The Literacy Site is dedicated to funding free books for children. On average, over 70,000 individuals from around the world visit the site each day to click the orange "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button. To date, more than 55 million visitors have helped provide more than a million books to children who need them most. Access to books is essential to reading development. Yet 61% of low-income families in the US have no books for children in their homes. Over 80% of childcare centers serving low-income children lack age-appropriate books and other print materials. By providing children from low-income families with books that they can take home and keep, together we target the only variable that correlates significantly with reading scores: the number of books in the home. Worldwide, there are more than 770 million illiterate adults in the world, two-thirds of whom are women and girls. In addition, there are over 100 million children not currently enrolled in primary school and millions of others not currently in secondary school. Education is a lifelong gift that empowers people to ultimately improve socioeconomic conditions for their families, communities, countries, and future generations. Through the opportunities that only an education can provide, we can break the cycle of poverty, one child at a time. The URL is http://www.theliteracysite.com/tpc/TLS_linktous.

The Rainforest Site is dedicated to the preservation of rainforests around the world. Your daily click funds the purchase of rainforest land by The Nature Conservancy, The Rainforest Conservation Fund, The World Parks Endowment, and Rainforest2Reef. These organizations work to preserve rainforest land in Ecuador, Mexico, Peru, Paraguay, and other locations worldwide. On average, over 35,500 individuals from around the world visit the site each day to click the green "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button. To date, more than 150 million visitors have preserved more than 40,500 acres of land. The URL is http://www.therainforestsite.com/tpc/TRS_linktous.

The Animal Rescue Site focuses the power of the Internet on a specific need: providing food for some of the 27 million unwanted animals given to shelters in the US every year. Over 10 million animals are put to death every year in the US alone because they are abandoned and unwanted. Each click on the purple "Click Here to Give - it's FREE" button at The Animal Rescue Site provides food and care for a rescued animal living in a shelter or sanctuary. Funding for food and care is paid by site sponsors and distributed to animals in need at the Fund for Animals' renowned animal sanctuaries, pet shelters supported by the Petfinder Foundation, North Shore Animal League, and other worthy animal care facilities supported by the GreaterGood.org foundation. The URL is http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/tpc/ARS_linktous.