As Mother’s Day somehow always manages to creep up on us from out of nowhere, we end up running out to grab a last minute card from a leftover  selection of Mother’s Day cards and try to think of a quick and simple gift our Mother’s will appreciate.  Instead of buying that same old gift card for a massage or purchasing your mother a bouquet of flowers (like you did last year), give your mother the most thoughtful gift, the gift of giving back.

There are a lot of last minute options to choose from when it comes to giving gifts that give back so I’ve picked out some of my favorite sites that offer great Mother’s Day gifts that either donate out of the cost or offer a donation within the gift.

GiftsThatGive.com is a site where for every $5 you spend, $1 goes to a charity of your choice.  One item that I saw was a Lilly Pulitzer iPad Cover that sells for $30 and $6 of that cost will go to the charity that you choose from a database of more than 1.2 million charities.

Project Iris is an online store selling women’s clothing with a mission to provide nutritious meals to new mothers and their children in developing countries.  Upon buying from this site, a portion of the sale is donated to help mothers and young children through the WFP (World Food Program).

Rescue.org is an organization that helps refugees and their families around the world and is offering a shopping mall of giving back that would make a great Mother’s Day gift.  Upon visiting the site, you can choose from gifts like:

$30 for a Flock of Chickens for a refugee family in Pakistan, $84 for warm blankets or even $100 for clean water in Somalia.  Rescue.org will mail a personalized e-card and send it to your mother thanking her for the generous gift she was able to provide others.

If you can’t find what you’re looking for, then one thing you can do is find out what organization your mother likes and make a donation in her name.  Most organizations already do this, but Charity Choice, an organization that provides e-gift cards to use on their site where over 4,000 organizations are listed is a great way to give mom a gift that gives back. Through Charity Choice, you are able to choose up to three charities to donate your funds to.

Mother’s Day is all about cherishing the person who has raised you to become the person you are today.  Make sure you share the positive impact your mother has had on you with the rest of the world and give back this Mother’s Day.

It was 9-year-old, Caine Monroy, who found himself spending his summer vacation at his dad’s used auto parts store in East Los Angeles, CA. Caine found a way to keep himself entertained on the long, hot summer days by collecting old boxes that were kept in the back of his dad’s shop, cutting and tapping the cardboard and piece by piece, started building classic arcade games.

As the summer days grew longer, Caine continued to patch the cardboard scraps together creating more elaborate versions of these arcade style games.  He would use random knick knacks to create tiny basketball hoops and GI Joes as soccer players on a colored green cardboard field.

Soon, there were tickets that Caine would push through a little slit at the bottom of the cardboard box simulating an actual arcade game.  There were prizes pinned to the wall behind the arcade games, a security system made from a set of calculators.  There was even a company t-shirt that Caine wore proudly every day. Caine’s Arcade was open for business, but there was only one problem, he wasn’t getting any customers.

One day, a customer found Caine’s Arcade and saw the unique gem that this little junkyard arcade had the potential to become and started filming all about the arcade.  Luckily for Caine, that customer was filmmaker, Nirvan Mullick, who ended up making a short documentary about the Arcade.  Mullick also went out and found more customers for Caine’s Arcade by creating a Facebook event, inviting thousands of people from Los Angeles to come play at the little cardboard arcade an blasted the news across internet.

Word had quickly spread and hundreds of customers showed up to play at Caine’s Arcade.  The video went viral receiving more than 1,000,000 views.  Donations started pouring in for the young aspiring entrepreneur. With a little help from mere strangers, touched by the passionate and dedicated young boy, Caine ended up with a $100,000 scholarship to attend college.

Watch the video below to see this moving and inspirational story. You can also visit Caine’s Arcade website or follow the latest info on Facebook and Twitter.

Yesterday, one of the girl’s in the office forwarded me a link to the video below.  Upon opening it, the video had 1,847,674 views on YouTube.   I watched as a young documentary filmmaker, Jason Russell, narrated a compelling video, along with his adorable 3-year-old son, Gavin raising public awareness about a man I had never heard of but was about to never forget.  The mans name, Joseph Kony, a criminal, murderer and the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA).

Joseph Kony, Leader of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA)

For the past 26 years, Kony has abducted over 30,000 children from their homes and has forced them into his rebel army, turning the girls into sex slaves and the boys into soldiers.  He forces the young boys to mutilate other people’s faces and even murder their own parents.

What is his rebel army for? Who is he fighting?  The worst part of the story is that there is no cause, no political agenda.  He has no following of any kind and has used peace talks multiple times to mislead and manipulate the people of Uganda in order to increase his level of power.

A small American charity dedicated to helping victims of conflicts in Africa, Invisible Children, along with filmmaker Jason Russell and his video, Kony 2012, have generated such a monumental backing of supporters that President Obama responded to the overwhelming call by sending U.S. troops to help the Ugandan government track down and capture Kony, who is also number one on the International Criminal Court’s: World’s Worst Criminal’s List.

Why should you care?  This morning I watched the video again and the amount of views has reached 32,612,703.  The Today Show this morning reported that the video is being watched by more than 1,000,000 people every hour.  This video is a true example of social media at its best and a throwback to the Social Good Summit conversations from earlier this year.  It’s proof that the technologies that we have created can be incorporated to not only generate awareness, but can actually make a difference and more importantly, help save lives.

So what’s next?  At sundown on April 20^, 2012, Invisible Children have called for action promoting Cover the Night.  Throughout the night, supporters are asked to put up posters, stickers and other Kony 2012 promotional materials all over the streets of their communities, towns and cities; to wake to world the next day with an advocacy campaign to bring down Joseph Kony.

CPXample is pledging their support and we are asking our followers to do the same. To sign the petition, donate and get your action kit to help Cover the Night, visit www.KONY2012.com.

It hasn’t even been a year since severe tornadoes ripped through the town of Joplin, MO and here we are again picking up the pieces from another devastating storm of tornadoes. In this series of, The Storm Shelter, we will be highlighting some of the organizations who are dedicated to helping the victims of this new Midwest disaster to rebuild their lives from what little has been left behind.

The videos alone that have been looping on National News stations make the Midwest seem almost like they were created for an upcoming sequel, Twister 2, but that’s simply not the case.  These massive beasts extending from the sky have completely leveled towns, destroying businesses and homes, leaving many injured and killing 32 people.

If you’ve seen these images, you understand the amount of help that is needed to reinstate these towns back into existence and in a time where surely our Government will find a way to argue the time away, it is up to us as a community of Americans to step up and take action into our own hands.

Click through the websites listed below to see how you can get involved.  You can also follow us on Facebook and Twitter where we will be highlighting local heroes, great organizations to donate to and how you can sign up to volunteer.

The American Red Cross has opened 22 shelters in the wake of this disaster. They have also dispatched emergency response vehicles to provide meals for displaced victims.  You can go online to make a donation or text REDCROSS to 90999 to donate $10 from your cell phone.

The Salvation Army has released their mobile unit and has started passing out meals and has set up local shelters in the Tennessee area.  You can go online or call 1-800-SAL-ARMY or to make a $10 donation you can text ARCH to 80888.

Team Rubicon is a disaster relief organization composed of veteran volunteers.  Their mission is to, “unite the skills and experience of military veterans with medical professionals” in crisis situations.  You can reach out to Team Rubicon on their website.

The Samaritan’s Purse has sent five tractor-trailers with emergency supplies and equipment to damaged areas in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.  To donate, visit the Samaritan’s Purse website.

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Watch our Marketing Coordinator, Taylor Hall, share more about what CPXample is and where else you can learn about the latest and greatest in the world of charity and philanthropy.

When it comes to Valentine’s Day, flowers are usually a good way to go when you want to impress that special somebody.  But with all the choices out there, it can get a little confusing trying to pick the bouquet that is both lovely and easy on the wallet.  What if you could do both and give back to your favorite charity to boot?

Organic Bouquet is a company that does just that.  They pride themselves on not only offering a 5% donation to each bouquet’s corresponding charity, but they do so much more.  A majority of the products they sell are eco-friendly in one way or another and are certified by agencies such as the USDA, Fair Trade or the Rainforest Alliance.

The company is also involved in community projects putting farmers in Ecuador back to work by financing 100% of flower seeds for them to grow.  They have also purchased remnant cotton from a small factory in India to fund education for more than 300 girls from local communities there.

This Valentine’s Day, make sure that you look into giving your loved one a bouquet of flowers from a company that truly knows how to show a little love in return.  To see more about the company and learn more about their corporate sustainability projects, visit their site at www.organicbouquet.com.  You can also check out their social media pages, Facebook and Twitter.

Alright food lovers, I have a great way for you to have your cake and eat it too when it comes to giving back. Mashable.com recently reported on a company that is doing just that, only the cake comes to your front door while another piece of cake is sent to an organization called No Kid Hungry.

Love with Food is an online based company that sells a monthly membership to people interested in specialized foods and snacks. For $14 a month, the company sends their members a box of delectable goodies that aren’t off your local grocery store shelf, but from gourmet collections that aren’t the easiest to find, but are the most delectable around.

For each box sold, Love for Food donates one meal to the U.S. based food bank, No Kid Hungry.  But the giving doesn’t stop there.  For members who want to order more of a specific product that they received in their treat box, they can visit the Love with Food site to purchase a full-size of that product and an additional meal will be donated.

It doesn’t take much for a company to utilize their business for the greater good.  Love with Food is a great example of that.  If only there were more companies out there who thought the same way.

Visit the Love for Food website to learn more.  You can also visit their Facebook and Twitter pages to learn about their latest deals and some great recipes.

As the holiday season inches closer and closer, the pressure to find that perfect gift starts to take its toll and we just want the gift giving process to be over with already.  This year, instead of choosing to buy them something just to complete the gift exchange cycle, choose to give the gift of giving back. 

Charity Choice is a non-profit organization that started as an umbrella organization back in 2000 for supporting children with special needs called The Special Kids Fund. In 2004, a Board Member of the Special Kids Fund wanted to make a charitable donation in memory of a business associate’s father who recently passed away.  Although helping children with special needs was something the organization felt a deep connection with, they also saw an opportunity to expand their umbrella even further to all different kinds of causes.

After a short couple of months of development, the organization developed Charity Choice. Now, almost eight years later, Charity Choice has grown upward and outward offering more than 600 charities for customers to choose from.

The bonus of using Charity Choice is the simplicity of it.  Upon visiting the site, you can purchase an e-card that can be emailed or even added to a Facebook wall. This is especially helpful for those who are in search of a great last minute holiday gift.  You can also choose to purchase a physical card that can be mailed to the recipient.  Once you confirm the dollar amount a confirmation email will be sent. That email can then be used for tax deduction purposes. 

If you’re worried about online privacy, don’t.  Charity Choice does NOT share your information.  It is completely confidential and offers an ‘opt-in’ option.  If you’re worried about an expiration date, don’t worry about that either.  The cards don’t expire. 

Once the charity gift card is received by the recipient, they have the option of choosing up to three charities from the Charity Choice site to donate the funds to. With more than 600 charities to choose from, that might take awhile.  But you can be sure that there will be at least one organization listed that your gift recipient will find to donate their funds to. 

So don’t fret this holiday season about giving that perfect someone the perfect gift.  Give them the gift of choice and a reason to get involved with charitable giving.

Visit Charity Choice to learn more.  You can also follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

As we all prepare to spend time with our families around one big table of turkey, stuffing and other various forms of homemade goodness, be thankful for the food on your plate as some families won’t have that same luxury this year.  One company is using their site to help fight hunger this holiday season. Groupon, the online deals site, has expanded their offerings by partnering with Feeding America for a charitable donation project.

If you’re familiar with how Groupon works, you know that you pay a discounted price for everything from restaurant meals and Laser Hair Removal visits to pottery classes and vacations.  Feeding America-The Loop was a campaign that ran for two weeks on the site as a Groupon ‘deal’. By donating the Groupon price of $11 (which was actually $22), customers were able to feed a family of four for two weeks. Beverage giant, Pepsi, also got on board and promised to match every donation up to $250,000.  The campaign ended with much success as the company projected they would receive 200 donations, the deal actually ended with more than 5,000 donations.

Another initiative that Groupon has started in lieu of the overwhelming response to Feeding America-The Loop campaign is the offering of $1 lunch deals on their new Now! Deals option.  The site plans on continuing their charitable efforts throughout the rest of the year and into 2012 by donating a portion of each sale to Feeding America.

Whether it’s Groupon, donating specifically to Feeding America or however you decide to give back this holiday season, make sure you get involved somehow.  There are so many families out there who need a boost and it’s up to us to come together and help out our fellow Americans.

To learn more about ways to give back, visit our Facebook page to see all the great and easy ways to give back.

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If your significant other is dropping hints about receiving diamonds this holiday season, let me assure you that Tiffany & Co. is the way to go.  With the recent launch of their sustainability website, you can rest assure that you are killing two birds with one ‘stone’(no pun intended) as you make the one you love happy and endorse one of the most iconic jewelry brands that conducts responsible business practices.

The issue of conflict diamonds is something that I never knew much about until I saw that Leonardo DiCaprio movie, Blood Diamond.  The awareness of conflict diamonds has forever changed the marketplace for diamonds, precious stones and metals.  The good news is, a significant amount of changes have occurred since 1992 when the issue of conflict diamonds was first reported.  One great measure that was taken was the adoption of the Kimberly Process, a certification process that prevents gems and diamonds of this nature from entering the market.  Tiffany and Co. uses this process for all of their precious stones.

The long time symbol for Tiffany and Co. has been their blue boxes and gift bags.  Tiffany’s creates their packaging with environmental responsibility in mind.  In 2010, the materials used to make the blue boxes and bags were from 100% FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified materials and more than 83% of those materials are recycled.   Tiffany and Co. maintains the use of responsibly sourced paper.

Tiffany and Co. also works with NGOs in an effort to improve standards within the mining industry. By combining their efforts with local jewelry retailers, Tiffany and Co. strives to raise awareness for responsible sourcing and enhance regulations on the mining industry.

So when you’re thinking about what piece of jewelry to get that special someone and if they haven’t circled it in a magazine for you already, make a purchase you will both be happy with.  One, they’ll be shocked that you went big this year, shopping at Tiffany and Co.; and two you’ll have made a socially and environmentally responsible investment.  Now that’s a great gift!