Gift Ideas for the Age We Live In

Tis the season and, in many cases at least, you still have to shop. In this economy money is tight and charities and not-for-profits are hurting more than ever. So, if you want to avoid the increasing danger of hitting the stores here are some gift ideas and help people at the same time.

the Music Gallery is offering a concert pass for two as well as a membership for $35 ($25 if you're already a member.

The Yellow Bird Project has t-shirts designed by some of your favourite bands - including the New Pornographers, Immaculate Machine, K-OS, Broken Social Scene, Stars, Hayden, and others with the proceeds going to a charity chosen by the band.

Dreambank.org lets you chip in to buy dreams rather than stuff. So, basically rather than everyone buying your loved one alot of stuff everyone pitches in to help them realize a dream: If they've always wanted to travel to Europe, everyone chips in for the trip or even if it is stuff, if they've always wanted a particular thing (work of art, musical instrument etc.) everyone can pitch in to buy them something they've always really wanted instead of a bunch of little stuff that they may or may not want and spare the environment from the impact of ... well...stuff.

The World Wildlife Fund has a variety of gifts including wildlife adoptions - does someone you know love pandas or polar bears? Adopt one for them (don't worry, it doesn't come live with you.)

Lake Ontario Waterkeepers is offering a CD to raise funds. It has tracks from Broken Social Scene, Bruce Cockburn, Sarah Harmer, Stars and others.

Warchild.ca has a wide variety of CDs, DVDs, Clothing and Greeting cards.

Kiva sells gift certificates. If you don't know Kiva is an organization where members have accounts and then make micro-investments from those accounts to help people in developing countries to start small business. In many cases a loan of $20-50 can take a family from poverty to self sufficiency and, if things go well, you get the money back with interest so you can reinvest.

If you have other things that should be on this list please let me know and I'll add them on.