The GiveList: A Holiday Resource for Tough Times

The GiveList was launched yesterday as a resource for supporting causes in a year when many of us won't have the means to write a check (although if you do have the means, please do so!).

The site is a really simple way to aggregate great, creative ideas for supporting causes. Just use the tag #givelist on Twitter or de.licio.ous for ideas on ways to give and support communities and causes, and they'll pop up on the site. Or you can post a comment on the site of a great idea that you have.

The most creative ways of supporting causes without having to spend, buy, or donate any money  (as determined by, well, me!) will be listed under the favorites category. So, start thinking and pinging and tagging!

The idea for the GiveList began to crystallize when we started to think about reviewing last year's Guide to Good Giving for this holiday season's giving. But, sadly for the world, this year feels very different from last year. We began to think about providing more alternatives for people to support causes in a really tough economy.

In partnership with my friend, Marnie Webb, the co-CEO of TechSoup Global (really, global!), we did what good social citizens do -- we put up a Wordpress blog overnight, started to populate it with the tag "givelist," and away we went.

As I posted on the site last night - wow, what an immediate response!  Here's more from that post:

In the few hours that GiveList has been up and running, we are delighted and thrilled with the enthusiasm and excitement with which our idea has been received.  Thanks to Beth Kanter for so creatively adding GiveList to an upcoming presentation in Boston, and Lucy Bernholz for posting about it so quickly.  Thanks to the tens of tweeters using the #givelist hashtag and sharing ideas and helping to spread the word.  Here’s my favorite tweet of the day from Missashe, “swoon #givelist (Hat tip, everyone I follow on twitter…) love, love, love this idea!”

So, thanks again for giving our idea oxygen and love, as someone said to us this afternoon, “Just because I’m poor doesn’t mean that I have to be stingy!”

I'll provide updates here on the great ideas we're receiving, but, please help spread the word and put on your thinking cap 'cause it's going to take a lot of creativity and elbow grease to help our causes and communities through the winter.

Photo by wharman