This holiday season Macy’s has partnered with the Make a Wish Foundation to bring holiday cheer to children with life-threatening medical conditions.  For every letter to Santa that Macy’s recieves, the department store will donate $1 to the Make-A-Wish Foundtion with the goal of raising $1 million.  And while they ask for letters from children explaining why they believe in Santa Claus, I’m sure they would accept notes from grown-up kids as well. And you can even become a virtual Santa with this nifty feature.

Take it from these folks:

And here’s the story behind “Yes, Virginia”.

takepart by writing a letter on Santa’s stationary to bring to Macy’s and support The Make-A-Wish Foundation through a variety of other ways.

Here is the Social Actions roundup from last week:

1 - Philanthropy 2173: Mobile texting moves to Mobile Volunteering

Lucy Bernholz introduces and shares the potential of TheExtraordinaires - a tool that’s under development and will enable you to volunteer via you cell phone.

Note: TheExtraordinaires is also seeking an iPhone coder (and launched a cool video to boot)

Read the rest of this entry »

Just came across this gem of an observation on the, ahem, stimulating effects of charitable giving:

“A number of studies have concluded that giving affects our brain chemistry. People who give often report feelings of euphoria, which psychologists have referred to as the Helper’s High. They believe that charitable activity induces endorphins that produce a very mild version of the sensations people get from drugs like morphine and heroin.” — Arthur C. Brooks “A Nation of Givers” The American March 31, 2008

The Facebook-based viral fundraising application ‘Causes’ just released stats for its first year of operation.

• 12 million users –60,000 of whom Facebook says are daily users
• Supporting over 80,000 causes
• $2.5 million donated to 19,445 non-profit organizations

Also worth noting: The organization snagged the URL causes.com, which re-directs to the Facebook app. (That couldn’t have been cheap.)

Via donorpoint