Did you know that U.S. consumers spend 450 billion dollars on holiday shopping every year? Think of the global change we could enact by collectively harnessing the power of our consumer habits for a better cause.
Do you hear this, know this, and still have a hard time downshifting in the momentum of the season?
Give the best of both worlds. Here are eight gift ideas to warm the hearts of the loved ones on your list AND give back to great Portland non-profits.
For Outdoorsy Types
Give: Forest Park hiking maps
Give Back: The Forest Park Conservancy
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Your outdoorsy friends and the new next door neighbors will love the inside scoop on navigating Forest Park’s many trails. The Hiking and Running Guide to Forest Park ($22.50) is a set of 10 rain and wear resistant maps printed on PolyArt with loop hikes and runs. With an index map of the entire park, the individual maps include driving directions to trailheads and point out the highlights of each loop. Hike distances range from 3-9 miles.
The Green Trails Map ($10) is a simpler overview map, with detailed topo lines, distances, elevation profile, trailheads, and surrounding city streets. It includes a close-up map of trails in Washington Park and the Hoyt Arboretum.
Profits from both maps benefit the Forest Park Conservancy’s stewardship efforts, helping volunteers maintain and improve trails, and complete habitat restoration projects. Your gift helps both present and future generations enjoy the park for years to come. Note: While the maps are available at many retail locations, you should purchase the map set directly from FPC to donate a greater portion of your purchase toward the FPC’s stewardship efforts.
Order by phone with address and credit card, or mail a request with a check for $24.50 ($2.00 covers postage.)
Forest Park Conservancy
1505 NW 23rd Avenue
Portland, OR
For Tree Huggers
Give: A native tree planted in your loved one’s name
Give Back: Friends of Trees
Honor a loved one with a young native tree planted by Friends of Trees. You can even help plant the tree yourself, during the two annual Gift Tree plantings at the Collins Sanctuary near Forest Park (in partnership with the Audubon Society of Portland and Metro.) You can also help during any of the other plantings between November and April.
Friends of Trees will mail a gift acknowledgement card to the person you're honoring when you call in or mail your tax-deductible donation of $35 for one native tree, or $100 for a grove of six young native trees. Because of the sensitive nature of the restoration sites, the organization cannot label the trees.
Your gift helps local volunteers and staff at Friends of Trees to care for city trees and green spaces, and to restore the Collins Sanctuary. Thus far, Gift Tree plantings have resulted in 745 native trees and plants restoring the newly ivy-free slopes of the Collins Sanctuary.
Cards mailed within 48 hours of the first business day order is placed. All orders placed by December 17, 2010 will be sent out in time for Christmas.
Friends of Trees
3117 NE MLK Jr. Blvd
Portland, OR 97212
For Nature Lovers
Give: Field guide and binoculars from the Audubon Society of Portland Nature Store
Give Back: The Audubon Society of Portland
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100% of profits from this volunteer-run store benefit the Audubon Society of Portland, an independent chapter of the Audubon Society whose local efforts include wildlife sanctuaries, educational programs, and wildlife care centers that care for 3,000-4,000 animals every year.
The Nature Store stocks the largest selection of nature books and field guides in town. There are also bird feeders and bird houses available for the birdwatcher in your life.
Other gift ideas include Tribute Gift certificates, Gift Trees, and memberships.
Audubon Society of Portland Nature Store
5151 NW Cornell Road
Portland, OR 97210
For Food Lovers
Give: Albertina’s Exceptional Recipes Cookbook
Give Back: Albertina Kerr Foundation
Give a year’s worth of cozy meals to the homebody in your life, with a book of unique, Northwest-inspired recipes from the Albertina Kerr Restaurant, located in the historic Kerr Nursery building in downtown Portland.
Or take your more social loved one to the Albertina Kerr Restaurant for a three-course lunch, created by talented volunteer cooks and served by volunteer servers. After lunch, stroll around the Old Kerr Nursery Building gardens or stop by the Gift Shop for last-minute gifts.
All profits benefit Albertina Kerr, which offers a wide range of services for children, families and adults facing mental health challenges and developmental disabilities, empowering them to lead fuller, self-determined lives. Youth and family services include crisis psychiatric care, foster care, and youth group homes. Developmental disability services offer support for individuals with Down syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, and epilepsy.
Albertina’s Restaurant and Shops
424 NE 22nd Avenue
Portland, OR 97232
For the Crafty
Give: SCRAP Gift Certificate
Give Back: School & Community Reuse Action Project (SCRAP)
Send your crafty friend on a wild shopping spree in this packed-to-the-gills recycled art supplies store in Northeast Portland. SCRAP’s bins and aisles brim with spools, paper, paint, pens, googly eyes, fabric—you name it, you’ll find it. A few dollars go a long way in this volunteer-run store where many items are sold by the stack or pound.
SCRAP collects useable creative materials from local businesses and individuals. Last year, the non-profit diverted 94 tons of material from the waste stream. The center also provides workshops and workspace for local schoolchildren and artists.
Purchase a gift certificate by visiting the store during open hours, or pick up a Paper Pack or Scrap to Go kit ($2.50 each) full of ready-to-go crafting supplies. And consider stopping by the brand-new Re:Boutique in the adjacent Reuse Gallery to select a gift made from reused materials by a local artist: hats, gloves, handmade books, picture frames, wallets, bags and more. Profits benefit the local artist and SCRAP.
Membership at SCRAP starts at $35/year and includes a 20% discount.
SCRAP
2915 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.
Portland, OR
For the Knitter in Your Life
Give: Hand-dyed yarn skeins (100% wool)
Give Back: Major Panda fiber arts studio (Project Grow)
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It’s a gift just to visit Major Panda fiber arts studio with a loved one. Peruse the gallery for handmade cards ($3), framed original paintings (up to $130), purses, altered clothing, pillows, a set of six placemats ($20), posters, scarves and more.
And say hello to the fiber goats, visible through the studio window, whose wool affords the studio with material for their newest offering: yarn skeins ($12) of raw and washed wool, dyed with natural pigments from the adjacent dye garden.
You’ll also have the chance to visit with the artists at work in the studio (9 a.m.-2 p.m. weekdays.) The artists will happily take commissions for customized or personalized placemats, paintings, cards, and altered clothing.
A part of Project Grow, Major Panda fiber arts studio provides fair wage employment for adults with developmental disabilities, as an alternative to factory employment. With workshops on topics like weaving, tie-dying and felting, Major Panda focuses on marketing created items for sale to promote self-sufficiency as well as creative fulfillment.
Major Panda Fiber Arts Studio and Farm
2124 N Williams Avenue
Portland, OR, 97227
For the Bacon Lover
Give: Bacon Boy and Bacon Girl T-shirts
Give Back: The Children’s Healing Art Project (CHAP) and the Austin Winters Fund
Bacon Boy is an original character created by Austin Winters, to express his experience with Leukemia. Though Austin died in 2008, his presence and gift live on in his art and in the lives of those who knew him. With the help of the Children’s Healing Art Project, Austin’s Bacon Boy designs are available on T-shirts of all sizes. 50% of the profits from the sale of the T-shirts go toward the Austin Winters fund, and 50% to CHAP. Austin’s designs also inspired his hospital friends to create their own characters: Sinister Sauce and Bacon Girl, also available on T-shirts.
Other items available through CHAP include holiday cards and cards featuring “Creatures from Portlandia,” patches, and beautiful rugs printed with artwork by children in the CHAP program. Visit the web site for pricing and availability, or stop by the “Holiday Bizarre” to shop and make art with CHAP, “a 28-day non-stop art-making factory and retail space.”
The Children’s Healing Art Project (CHAP) offers one-on-one classes for children in isolation and group classes in playrooms, lobbies and waiting rooms. The CHAP art experience “engages and inspires… so children can be seen for their artistic talents and not for their diseases, diagnoses or disabilities.”
CHAP Art Factory
1030 NW Marshall
Portland, OR 97209
Holiday Bizarre: November 26th-December 25th
For the Foodie or Bicyclist
Give: B-Share gift certificate (40 meals delivered by bicycle to local food assistance programs)
Give Back: B-Line Sustainable Urban Delivery
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Let your loved one know that the gift of a full belly has been given in their name to a hungry neighbor in Portland—and helped to reduce carbon emissions. Say what?
B-Line completes the “missing link” in the urban distribution system by making local business deliveries by tricycle. B-Shares, the charitable arm of B-Line, delivers surplus food from local food establishments (New Seasons, Whole Foods, People’s Co-op) to local food assistance programs (Sisters of the Road Café, Blanchet House, St Francis Dining Hall.)
A donation of $20 purchases 40 meals at one of the above food assistance programs. You can also give the gift of a monthly subscription, enabling B-Shares to provide 40 meals each month. Visit the B-Line web site to donate the number of shares of your choice. You will be able to print a gift certificate in the name or memory of the recipient of your choice. Tax-deductible donations to B-Line are also available by visiting the Sisters of the Road Café website.
B-Line: Sustainable Urban Delivery
735 SE Alder
Portland, Oregon
Donations are great (tax-deductible) gifts, too. Need ideas? Check out the list of local non-profits in our directory. Don't see your fave? Add it here.
