Thursday Thirteen #26

Today's Thursday Thirteen is all about philanthropy on the internet. We all know the many amazing and incredible ways that the internet has changed our daily lives. In no way is this more apparent than in the opportunities it affords us to do good without ever leaving the comfort of our own homes. October, being Breast Cancer Awareness Month is one of those times when you can't help but run into some opportunity to help. But there are so many other causes and so many other ways to do so. I've decided to direct you to just some of those that I've come across online.

Here are 13 ways you can help with just a click of a mouse:

1. Email a Duck, Raise a Buck - This is such a cool website! Here's how it works:

"First, dress up your computer-generated duck - make it sassy, chic, funky or frilly using the dozens of accessories available. Then email your new creation to a bunch of friends. For each person that opens your email, Munchkin will donate $0.05 to Susan G. Komen for the Cure to help in the fight against breast cancer*.
You can return to www.munchkin.com/projectpink as often as you like to check your duck's "flight" on a map of the world and see how much money your duck has raised. Decorate, distribute, donate and you'll be just ducky! "

Sounds fun right? I just sent my ducky on his way... GO NOW. ;-)

2. Shelly at This Eclectic Life is the mind (and heart) behind the Share a Square project

Please do click above and go visit her site to find the many ways you can help. I'm not much of a knitter, but my mom is, so my contribution is going to be to buy some yarn so mom can knit a few squares...it'll be a team effort and mom will love that she gets to help (trust me she loves this stuff). Go check Shelly out, she's amazing.

3.

Click to save the Rain Forests. Just one click makes a small difference, one click a day, and a bunch of small differences add up to a big change. AND you can go shopping through their website and help out even more that way. Check out the gorgeous Jade necklaces for example...I might just have to pick up one of these. And for every order completed starting October 15th, a tree will be planted.

4.

Another click to give site. This one to give books to children. As an avid reader, I'm all for sharing the love of reading with all children. And again, you can shop their store for even more opportunities to give.

5.

Yet another click to give site. And hey, you can get some cool pink items at their store all while helping the cause.

6.

Click to help feed those who need it. Shop to give even more. And there is so much information on this site to educate yourself with as well.

7.

I can't tell you the amount of time I "wasted" while visiting these click to donate sights. I learned so much about so many causes. Here's another one you just have to go over and click, and do some reading on. And hey, SHOP.

8.

And who could forget the animals? Another click to help site, and OMG the cute little pawprint jewelry you can by!

9.

Donate to Big Brothers Big Sisters. This is an organization near and dear to my heart, as I've been a big sister to Lil'K for 6 1/2 years now. You can donate via the main BBBS branch here, or you can donate to my local branch here. Or even better, if you have some time and a desire to make a difference in a child's life, and in turn, change your life in ways you can't even begin to imagine, contact your local branch and sign up to become a big.

10. Sign up for Chemo Angels. I found out about this organization through my blog buddy Lisa of Lisa's Chaos. What a wonderful organization this is. Please click on the link and find out how you can help, it takes so little to do so much. There are so many ways to help on this site, from signing up to send weekly cards to someone going though chemotherapy to even donating your old cell phones. Coincidentally enough, I just ordered a new cell phone which I should get sometime this week, and guess where my old cell phone is going now?

11. Check out the World Community Grid. By simply letting your computer work when it is idle, you can help. Curious? Check it out.

12. Educate yourself. The internet is a limitless source of information on all things phylanthropic and otherwise. Learn about a cause you've always wondered about, and how you can help, or expand your horizons and learn about something you've never even considered before. But educate yourself.

13. Share the love. See a cause here you feel strongly about? Tell others about it, post it on your blog. Know a cause I missed, someone who's doing such good you just have to tell others about it? Spread the word. Leave a link in comments, let's all do some good today.

Speaking of those who do nice things...this week's TT header was created by Samulli, who just lets people come on over to her blog and take any of the headers she created for their own use...isn't that nice of her? Go on over and take a look, she has some great headers.