By Greg Susko

On January 23^rd, 2012, Alabama was hit by two deadly tornadoes, leaving at least two people dead and more than 100 injured.  The Red Cross has estimated that over 400 homes were either destroyed or deemed unlivable because of severe damage.  These tornadoes come just nine months after a series of violent storms resulted in over 200 deaths and thousands of destroyed homes in the area.  Alabama Governor Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency in all 67 Alabama counties in order to make state resources available to the individual counties in need.

UniversalGiving has partnered with Team Rubicon to assist the relief effort.  Team Rubicon helped previously with the 2011 tornadoes in Alabama and Missouri which caused immense damage.  Founded by U.S. veterans, Team Rubicon utilizes the skills that veterans learned during their time in the military to provide aid in disaster situations.   Team Rubicon has deployed a team of veterans to assist with the cleanup and repairs needed as a result of these deadly tornadoes.

Help those affected by these devastating tornadoes by supporting Team Rubicon and donating to Veterans Respond to Alabama Tornadoes today!

More information about Veterans Respond to Alabama Tornadoes:

Following the devastating tornado that ripped through northern Alabama Monday, Team Rubicon has mobilized its Region VI Veteran Emergency Response Team. Volunteers are inbound and will assist primarily in debris clean up and minor home repairs; with low level search and rescue as needed. The team will link up with and work alongside DRADT.

Source: Reuters, Team Rubicon

We are happy to share about a new organization that shares our mission of striving to make the world a better place!

San Francisco-based nonprofit, PhotoPhilanthropy, is bringing art and creativity to social change.  The organization has created a platform for photographers to collaborate, share, and connect with other nonprofit organizations in efforts to drive philanthropy through photography.

Through PhotoPhilanthropy, photographers can network with nonprofit organizations to volunteer and photograph specific projects.  Also through the site, photographers can share their work with nonprofits, share their experiences, and even search for grants that will help continue their efforts.

On January 22, PhotoPhilanthropy will be hosting a panel of speakers to discuss how photography can be used for social change.  The event will be hosted at the California College for the Arts in San Francisco from 10am to 1pm.  Presentation topics include visual storytelling for nonprofits, the value of non-profit photography for socially concerned photographers, and how non-profits and photographers collaborate to make an impact.

For more information and to register for the panel, click HERE

Today, we’re excited to tell you about a UniversalGiving partner who’s doing great work for the world!  The Hoop Fund is located down the hall from us at the Hub SoMa, and they also share our international focus.

The Hoop’s mission is to create a more  connected marketplace, building links between consumers and the people who created the products they buy.  The Hoop partners with entrepreneurs, artisans, and farmers, and invites the people who buy their products to help fund their work.  The Hoop gives you two choices: you can directly fund a microloan to a project of your choice, or you can buy a bundle that combines a great product for you, and a microloan for the person who made it.

If you make a microloan, you get your money back when the loan is complete.  They have a 100% repayment rate so far, and loan recipients are charged zero interest!

The Hoop has recently launched gifting features for the holidays.  Every gift purchase also funds a microloan–or you can give a microloan on behalf of a loved one.  So you can buy a sweater that also supports women weavers, or give someone a beautiful necklace, and help build a daycare center.

This is a great opportunity to think about where the things you buy are coming from.  Contrary to the popular images, most gifts aren’t made by elves up at the North Pole.    With the Hoop, you’ll know who made the gifts you’re wrapping up, and you’ll know that your gift also supported a great cause.  It’s an inspiring option for the holidays!

If you will be giving to charity this holiday season or are considering making a personalized and meaningful donation on behalf of someone you love, you’re not alone.

Holiday giving is a tradition that combines the Scrooge-inspired spirit of Christmas with generous year-end-tax breaks. Each year, charitable organizations around the world receive millions from contributors during the holiday season. It seems that the tougher the economic times, the more dedicated we are to helping those who are most vulnerable. According to the Red Cross, 68% of Americans believe that it is especially important to give to charity this year due to poor economic conditions, and 79% of Americans admit that they would prefer to receive a charitable gift in their honor than a present they would not use this holiday season.

Two years ago, when my father asked that we donate to a meaningful charity in lieu of giving him a Christmas present, I immediately knew I wanted to donate to an organization that would save the world’s trees. My father loves trees. He loves their resilience, their fortitude and their ability to withstand so much human destruction. Overwhelmed with all the charitable organizations out there, I wondered how to select the most impactful, the most meaningful organization and how to be confident that my donation was going directly to saving trees.

Through my experience looking for a charitable gift in honor of my father, I discovered that there are so many charitable organizations spreading so much hope all over the world, and deciding where to give can be difficult.

UniversalGiving offers a tool that helps you find gift packages – from thousands of charitable organizations – suited to your loved ones. This tool helps ease your concerns about choosing a trustworthy organization and provides clear gift amounts that allow you to see what your gift will actually achieve.

Saving trees is just the beginning. There are over 400 gift packages available on UniversalGiving.org, which means you will be able to find a charitable gift package for all your loved ones. To give a gift package in honor of family members, friends or colleagues, begin by thinking about their interests, concerns and cares, and search for the gift package that best suits them. UniversalGiving’s pre-packaged gifts make it easy to see where your gift is going and who the beneficiaries are. Here are some examples of the gift packages that are offered:

For the teacher in your life:

Give $25 to give an impoverished child in the US a pair of eyeglasses so he or she can see the blackboard and succeed in school.

For the cook in your life:

Give $50 to provide an in-school meal to a hungry child for an entire school year.

For the doctor or nurse in your life:

Give $350 to supply one clinic in rural Bolivia with all the needed equipment to serve a population with no access to health care.

Check out more gift packages…

UniversalGiving screens non-profits for you with their Quality Model™ standard, so you can be assured that your gift will go to a top-performing organization. You want to do as much good as possible, and since UniversalGiving takes nothing from your donation through their website, you don’t have to worry.

For more ideas on holiday giving, a live online discussion, hosted by The Chronicle of Philanthropy and The Christian Science Monitor, will be held on December 6.

Chelsea Iversen is a San Francisco-based freelance writer. She works with non-profit organizations to strengthen their messaging and communications. You can contact Chelsea at chelsea@writegenuine.com or www.writegenuine.com.

“In order to get something, you first need to give” –Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad

Many successful businessmen and entrepreneurs practice this basic property of reciprocity. Those who we consider ‘rich’ are often capable of giving much more than those we may consider ‘poor’ and I’m not referring to monetary assets by any means. Those who are ‘rich’ are capable of giving value to others, and this is precisely why they tend to receive so much. Yet, one more important principle works imperatively with the basic properties of reciprocation, especially when applied to human interaction: one must give to give, instead of giving to receive.

When Robert Kiyosaki feels needy or short of something he gives what he wants first so that it will come back in buckets. This is true of money, a smile, love and friendship.

Robert Kiyosaki is an American investor, businessman, self-help author and motivational speaker. Kiyosaki is best known for his Rich Dad, Poor Dad series of motivational books and other material published under the Rich Dad brand.