Valentine’s Day is here and you still don’t have a gift for that someone special. Or maybe you want a little something extra to go with those flowers and chocolate? Or maybe you have a friend or loved one you want to let know you’re thinking of them? Or maybe you want to teach your children about helping others on this international day of love? Or maybe you’re shopping for the person who has everything?
If any of these apply – or, if you just feel like giving to those in need – here’s a stress-free solution for you: give a charitable gift this Valentine’s Day.
Here’s our list of 5 Last-Minute Charitable Gift Ideas For Valentine’s Day.
Plant A Tree
Plant A Tree in Brooklyn, New York’s beautiful Prospect Park. And, if you plan on surprising your love with an upcoming trip to the New York area, you can add this on and tell them you’ll be visiting the park to look at the trees, making this a nice tie-in gift.
You can also donate to Plant Trees in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil for that special someone through The Nature Conservancy, which also has has downloadable Valentine’s Day Nature Cards for Kids. This is the perfect gift to give to offset the mass amounts of paper greeting cards being bought up for Valentine’s Day.
Sponsor A Farm Animal
Show the one you love that you care about the little creatures of the world by sponsoring a farm animal at a sanctuary like Catskill Animal Sanctuary or the Farm Sanctuary. These animals have all been spared from the slaughterhouse, so your donation helps them live a cruelty-free natural life! The aforementioned sites have Valentine’s Day e-cards that you can send and/or print out, and there’s plenty of lovable rescued farm animals to choose from with different pricing levels. Your gift recipient will eventually receive in the mail a personalized adoption certificate and color photo of the animal, but for your last-minute needs, print up the details on the animal you picked. If sponsorship is too much of a commitment right now, then simply make a One-Time Donation for Valentine’s Day to help out all the farm animals.
Also, there’s other organizations out there like World Wildlife Fund, Defenders Of Wildlife, and Rabbit Welfare, where you can sponsor wildlife animals if you’d rather go that route or just make a one-time donation — there’s Valentine’s Day ecards available to send as well.
Adopt A Bat
Adopt A Bat for your lover, like one of these short-tailed fruit bats from Bat World Sanctuary or make a donation to get a Valentine’s Day ecard. The image above is one of the ecards, and that bat is tiny – the size of a thumb-drive!
You can also choose from the selection of bats over at Batcon (after you make your purchase, you can send an ecard). If you’re in the UK, you can donate to bats.org.uk; they also have Valentine’s Day ecards you can send.
Donate To Plant Flowers
Donate To Plant Flowers to the Central Park Conservancy in someone’s honor. You can choose from Daffodils, Tulips, or Mums and get an ecard to send to the recipient. Here you’ll have flowers planted at New York City’s famous Central Park, and as with the aforementioned tree donation to Prospect Park, you can add this on to a trip if you have something like that planned, or you can give this on its own knowing that you are helping to beautify the Earth.
CharityChoice Gift Cards
Select an ecard or a downloadable card from CharityChoice Gift Cards from the Valentine’s Day designs. Once you pick a design, you can add a customized greeting and then choose from over 250 major charitable causes and hundreds of local charities to donate to in honor of someone special. You can also make it so that the gift recipient gets to choose the charity after you give them the card.
If you want to show the people in your life that you love and care for them, there’s plenty of ways to do it that don’t involve material items or expensive sentiments. But, if you’ve already gone the flowers/chocolate/jewelry route, you can still add on one of these charitable items to your existing gift. And/or, you can get one of these charitable gifts for other people in your life you love, like your parents, siblings, child, and other family members and friends. It’s a great way to show you care, about them and about the world around you. Bonus – most of these are tax-deductible!
Remember, Valentine’s Day is what YOU make it.
[‘Fruit bat’ image courtesy of Shutterstock.com]
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