Effortless Ways to Help Change the World for FREE! Part 3

As the third part of my Change the World for FREE series, I would like to talk about, and introduce you to some sites where you can 'click to donate'.

I was introduced to these sites a year or two ago by my sister and did them every day first thing in the morning. I re-formatted and lost my links and forgot about them. I was really excited when I found them again when researching this series!

• goodsearch.com - You can use this search engine and with each search you help donate to charities. There are also 'goodshop' and 'gooddining'. When you shop online through the site, or go to a restaurant the companies will give a portion of your purchase to charity! They have a huge selection of stores and restaurants! Bookmark it and check it before you buy online!
• Charityusa.com - This site has a list of different sites you can 'click to donate' with. From animals, to kids, to literacy, there are a lot of different organizations. By click some links it even tells how much you helped to give, for example theanimalrescuesite, 'Your click gave the value of 0.6 bowls of food for rescued animals.' theanimalrescuesite is the website I have set as my homepage, and I can click through all the sites along the top and donate to each.

The bar along the top allows you to easily click through each site.

• care2.com - Another site that has a list of different things you can click through and donate. There is even a check mark after you complete each site!

These sites are able to donate to charities through their ad revenue, the more clicks, the more money goes to help those in need! Even clicking through just once a day can help and it takes under a minute to complete each site. Using goodsearch instead of your regular search engine is a simple change too.

The Harry Potter Alliance and Child Slavery

There is no way any sane person can argue in favor of Child Slavery, it's just not going to happen. It's a horrifying thing that no parent or child should ever have to think about, let alone deal with. Sadly it is the reality for many children and families. I don't even want to think about if it were someone in my family, it's terrifying and it happens way too often around the world.

Recently my eyes were opened to the child slavery and labor revolving the cocoa plant. Children are kidnapped and forced to work 12 hour days, and beaten regularly.

This year one of the campaigns The Harry Potter Alliance is focusing on is child slavery, and as part of that they are urging Warner Brothers to use fair trade chocolate when selling products under Harry Potter's name. The HP Alliance received a report from Free2Work that states that Harry Potter chocolate received an 'F' in human rights, Warner Brothers of course denied this and stated that they have their own report proving they don't actually have an F, but refused to show it. The HP Alliance is asking that people sign a petition asking Warner Brothers to show this report. You can click here to sign it!

I may not be an HP fan, but I know MANY of you are, or your children are. I urge you to sign the petition, and buy only fair trade chocolate! I will never eat chocolate again unless I know it is free trade, I can't eat it knowing it may have affected the rights of children. It is hard to wrap my mind around the fact that a simple decision like this will affect children just like my own brother around the world.

Click here for a list of Free Trade Chocolate in the US.
Click here to find products if you are in Canada.

Effortless Ways to Help Change the World for FREE! Part 2

Welcome to the second part of my little series on how you can easily help out those in need, for FREE! For this part, we are going to focus on food donations.

During the month of November and December it was made clear to me how many people are in need, and how close to home they are. Kids in my brother's school, people I see regularly at the post office or corner store, or even just passing them while walking the dog. It's incredibly heartbreaking to think about.

This year I have vowed to buy at least one extra bag of non-perishable food and donate it while doing my own groceries. It's not huge - and it may be only every second week, but it does make a difference. Or maybe set a budget, for example $10 worth of product to donate. That $10 doesn't seem like much but it can go a long way if spent right. (Okay, we are getting off track, I did say *free* ways to help out!)

Within the last couple of years, 'couponing' has become huge. We have all seen the huge hauls and savings people show off in our facebook feeds! I have just recently started couponing myself so I am not the best one to teach or guide you, but you can find great couponing guides with a quick search and if you click here you can see a great guide on how to get started! You can often find coupons with huge savings - and free product coupons too. I know that many couponers build themselves a stash of food/items and then donate their extras.

Another thing to watch out for is BOGO sales. Every few weeks one of the grocery stores nearby will have a buy one, get one free sale. If they are having a BOGO sale on canned fruits or vegetables that means I will be able to donate even more that month OR if it is something you normally buy and you are getting a FREE product, why not donate it?

Effortless Ways to Help Change the World for FREE! Part 1

Welcome to my new series, 'Effortless Ways to Help Change the World for FREE!" In this multi-part series I'm going to share ways that you can donate or help charities, even if you don't have the funds to give them money directly. I have researched and tried these methods myself and I am excited to share them, I love giving back and helping others in need, but I know we don't always have the extra cash to donate.

Part 1 in the series is going to focus on a chrome extension called 'Tab for a Cause.' I found the extension a little over a year ago from a project for awesome video. If you would like to see their video for this year you can click here to see it.

As the name suggests, every time you open a new tab on chrome you are helping a charity. The revenue from ads will go to the charities. After you have installed the google chrome extension, you can click the extension and choose how often you want each charity to show up in your tabs.

As you can see above, Tab for a Cause supports 6 charities, water.org, Room to Read, Human Rights Watch, Conservation International, International Peace Institute, and Save the Children.   

Tab for a Cause is incredibly easy to use, and something so small in your every day life can make a huge difference. How many times do you open a new tab? I can't even count how many tabs I would have opened in just an hour of being on the computer!