Buy One, Give One

If you are planning to buy some stuff this holiday season, you might want to consider a "Buy One, Give One" program. Many, many socially responsible businesses now regularly donate 10% of the purchase price of items to non-profits or local schools. Buy One, Give One programs take that concept further by donating an item of equal value to the one purchased. Read on for three great programs: the Bogo solar powered flashlight, the XO laptop, and Tam and Rob fair trade clothing company.

Sun Night Solar has developed a Buy One, Give One program for their Bogo solar powered flashlight. These fabulous flashlights are a terrific innovation for us in the developed world, reducing the expense and pollution associated with disposable batteries. In the developing world they are priceless. According to the Sun Night Solar website, "two billion people living in the developing world rely on kerosene lanterns, candles, and single-use battery flashlights for light at night. Not only are these options expensive, dangerous, and harmful to the environment, they also negatively impact health, education, and security." The Bogo light provides an opportunity for children to further their educational opportunities by reading at night, which is especially important in developing countries where children often work during the day. These flashlights also reduce the dangerous, expensive and carbon-emitting use of kerosene. The Bogo solar powered flashlights cost $25, and the buyer gets to choose which US nonprofit will distribute the flashlight to a program in a developing country. Mom, if you're reading, one of these lights is all I want for Christmas!

Another fabulous Buy One, Give One scheme is through One Laptop Per Child. Their mission is to provide a means for learning, self-expression and exploration to the nearly two billion children of the developing world with little or no access to education. Collaborating with design experts from academia and industry, OLPC developed the XO laptop: "The result is a unique harmony of form and function; a flexible, ultra-low-cost, power-efficient, responsive, and durable machine with which nations of the emerging world can leapfrog decades of development—immediately transforming the content and quality of their children's learning." Starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time in North America. For $399, you will be able to purchase two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home. The buyer can also just donate an XO laptop for $200.

Lastly, this holiday season, the women's fair trade fashion label Tam & Rob is launching Buy One Give One Free for Christmas. For every item purchased before Christmas, a new sari will be donated to a destitute woman through the charity Social Action for Association and Development (SAAD) in Maharashtra, India. Tam & Rob supports the work of SAAD, a charity that provides literacy and skills training to some of the world’s most vulnerable women, as the label’s own ethos is also to increase opportunities for disadvantaged groups. The new saris donated by Tam & Rob will benefit these women as they start their new lives and careers supported by SAAD. These companies are doing well by doing good, and we hope you'll support them if you can.