Giving is Good. Giving Good is Better.

by Sandy Haksi

Last Mother's Day, we teamed up with Inter Pares to create a tribute card campaign called Take Back the Day that was about reclaiming the holiday's peace and justice origins. When they approached us about another alternative giving campaign for the Christmas season, we knew that this time we'd like to look to the future and champion Inter Pares' focus on long term social outcome work. Inter Pares engages on issues as varied as violence against women, food sovereignty, refugees and displaced people's rights, peacebuilding, health, and just economies. They work all around the world at the local level to empower groups and activists working to better their communities, while also working on domestic social issues that fit with their international goals. So we came up with Give Something Big to reflect the expansive scope of their work and also the big ideas that are driving it: social justice, peace and equality for all.

There's a natural desire for people to feel connected to their gifts and we derive emotional satisfaction from knowing we are helping someone and making a difference. To appeal to this, we are often entreated to make a donation of xx dollars to buy a family in a developing country a chicken. Or help raise xx amount of money to build a school for girls, and so forth. Yet attacking the root of global issues and problems in need of ongoing reform isn't always that simple. Not that these aren't worthy and wonderful gifts, but structural change requires that we go deeper.

So this holiday season, we're encouraging everyone to Give Something Big and help unite grassroots movements working for social transformation all over the world. By making a gift, you can send holiday cards that help create lasting change. We believe in the campaign so much that, during the holiday season, we're donating the profits from the Hello Cool World webstore and contributions to the Campaign 4 Corporate Harm Reduction.

In this e'Zine, you can also read a little more about the creative process behind Give Something Big and play with our simple n' fun Do-It-Yourself card-maker engine. The Corporation's Mark Achbar gives a short progress report on two upcoming important films: Blue Gold on the world water crisis (an issue that is dear to our hearts) and Fierce Light, a journey into spiritual activism and the sequel to the award-winning Scared Sacred. Hello Cool World founder Katherine Dodds articulates the vision behind our work (we want to be a non-profit!), and also catches us up on some amazing other projects we're working on, from outreach street nursing to a very special prom in Mississippi.

Happy Alternative Holidays!
Hello Cool World &
The Corporation