In this season of being thankful for all that you have, it’s nice to think about others who might not be as lucky as you are.

FreeRice.com makes giving back easy (and kind of fun, too), by donating rice to hungry children around the world just for playing a simple word game!

Here’s how it works: FreeRice features different types of questions — in subjects like English vocabulary and grammar, as well as foreign languages, chemistry and art. For every question you get right, FreeRice will donate 10 grains of rice to a child in need through the United Nations’ World Food Programme (thanks to the site’s advertisers). Read More »

It’s my belief that dads are the most impossible group of people for whom to buy holiday gifts. What do they want, anyway? Year after year, I dread the rolling around of his birthday and Christmas because I have absolutely no idea what to get for my dad.

Not this year!

Inevitably, there will always be people on your holiday-gift list who stump you (especially now that you waited until the last minute!). Maybe you haven’t seen Great-Aunt Ruby since you were ten, but you have to get her something this year because she just sent you a ton of cash for your birthday. Or maybe you just made a new friend, but you aren’t sure of this person’s likes and dislikes yet.

Charity to the rescue!

If the people you know are nice, they’d probably really appreciate a charitable gift. Not the kind of charity where you give them money—the kind of charity where you give others money in the name or honor of those you’re gifting.

Here are some great places to start.

Heifer International – This organization has a gift catalog link from their home page, which will lead you to a menagerie of offerings to give in the name of friends or family members. You can give a flock of chicks or ducks for as little as $20. Heifer is all about providing livestock to people who need it to become self-reliant, and it’s a great cause. Read More »

“Hi! Chelsea?! This is Amy from Baby Miracles!”

It had only been an hour since I replied to an add on Craigslist that was offering between 7,000-10,000 grand for an egg donor, and they were already calling. They called before I could really process what I had even gotten myself into. All I knew was that rent was almost due, my car had been chugging around on Empty for days, and I wasn’t quite prepared to strip for cash — since I couldn’t afford the liquor necessary to do so.

Any other time my eyes would have grazed an ad for egg donation, I wouldn’t have even noticed the dollar signs and the idea of EGGS would have only applied to my breakfast. This particular ad was so specific though…it was basically calling my name.

It was a NYC couple that couldn’t conceive, one was Italian the other was Irish (the exact mix of my ethnicities), they were looking for someone artsy (me), writer (me), musician (me), healthy (me), smart (me), height/weight (on the money) and blah blah blah. It was calling. I answered the ad, and it was so much of a calling I had them CALLING ME….not once, but twice. Three times. E-mails, IM’s and messages were also left.

I spent a couple weeks filling out the info (the couple was pushy and upped their going rate), I did the paperwork and then ALL of the details started to come to my attention. This wasn’t some piece of cake thing where you hand over a bloody rag and call it a baby. Egg donation came down to some moral conflicst and frankly, some needles. Read More »