Charity gifts-in-lieu seemed to burst into popularity a few years ago, as far as I can tell.
Instead of getting a gift you didn’t want from someone you love, they could give the money to a charity and have that charity give a “gift” of some sort to someone in need.
I guess they grew (excuse the pun) from the plant a tree type schemes, and in recent years it has grown in range and charity-type so you can buy everything from hulahoops to a library to bull semen.
But what if you want to support scientific research?
Well, Goodgifts offers a brain cell, where your £15 is channelled to brain-based medical research at the Alzheimer’s Society, The Brain Research Trust, Cancer Research UK, Meningitis Research Foundation, Meningitis Trust and Parkinson’s Disease Society, via the AMRC.
Or, you can contribute £35 to genetic research at the BHF.
And that’s all the research gifts I’ve been able to find. The Natural History Museum has some cleaning, preservation and education gifts, but none for the scientific research side of their work. Apparently last year, you could buy a labcoat for a Cancer Research UK scientist, but their virtual gifts section seems to have gone from their website.
I guess it is easier at Christmas time to make immediately appealing and relevant medicines for poor farmers or a bundle of newspapers for a poor Indian village and there’s something quite cute about saying, "Merry Christmas, I bought you a camel "
So here’s hoping that many buy a braincell for Christmas. For surely, next year, there should be many able to say on Christmas morning, "Merry Christmas, I bought you a Gilson " too?
Last updated:
Sunday, 14 Dec
2008 - 21:42 UTC
That’s effing fantastic, Scott. A nice write-up about why and how, too. Try here for a link that works, though.
Thanks Richard!
Argh, Nature Network’s ampersands-in-urls bug – which, oddly, isn’t on another site I use that uses textile.
Thanks – I’ve now fixed it on all the links but for the Oxfam presents.
hey Scott, just read your post. This is great stuff! thanks for putting up all the links too.
I was going to keep this a secret as someone who will receive this may read this, but I think it is good to share…
Marcus du Sautoy, offers a unique (well, mathematically, anyway) gift:
So the money goes to a development charity, but you get a mathematical gift!
In keeping with many researchers with institutes that accept charitable donations, Heather would like some of your money too for her research work, which isn’t quite in keeping with the links in my blog, as those links in my blog package the donation as a specific “gift” of an object to the charity concerned, rather than a general donation.
I could exchange the donation for any number of cool things that cost far less than the amount solicited, to be really in line with the above. It’s just a matter of packaging or making a shopping list?
I guess this is like the “buy a goat” or “buy fresh water”? I like anything that is “exchange the amount of silly stuff you give for a silly amount of money with something that really matters for someone else” :)
thanks for the links!
I could exchange the donation for any number of cool things that cost far less than the amount solicited, to be really in line with the above. It’s just a matter of packaging or making a shopping list?
Given that some of the Oxfam gifts in particular “sell out” each year, it seems that there is a requirement for the money to actually be spent on what they say they are spending it on. So Buy a Goat actually means a goat has to be bought. Some are “Buy a (bit of, read the small print) something” but there’ still a requirement for the money to be spent on the something.
So Heather, you could have a “Buy a pipette for Heather” gift, but only if you were prepared to buy a pipette for each gift donation, or made it clear that you wouldn’t.
I do think, though, that in the “Buy a Goat” thing, there is always a little discretionary margin for the fundraiser. So I could have a “pre-filled box of pipette tips with filters” or “a bottle of culture medium” at slightly more than cost (whereas “buy an antibody” would really buy me a vial of antibody at the prices they are at, no margin possible) and save up the extra bits until I have enough to buy the antibody as well.
I’d be pleased to send out packing slips of a photo of cheerful me holding up my new box of disposable tips. I’d post it on my website :-)
Actually, this is a little like some patient associations who like to see a durable, physical machine that they’ve offered a laboratory, often with a plaque on it. Unfortunately, machines have half-lives, too, and it’s always a bit painful to throw away something they would have wanted to be permanent (whereas actually disposable things can be very useful too). However, one couple gave our laboratory (before I arrived) a whole library meeting room, which was dedicated in their child’s honor, so I got to meet him and know his story by proxy when I came to work there. That’s a lovely gesture, and frankly useful, too. It doesn’t sound romantic to buy office furniture, but it’s a beautiful room in which to work and we do call it by his name.
It doesn’t sound romantic to buy office furniture, but it’s a beautiful room in which to work and we do call it by his name.
I think, though am not a proper fundraiser, that room dedications (or building dedications) carry the highest premium amongst fundraising, as they last the longest time.
When our workplace was being refurbished a few years ago, I did offer (over lunch) to the finance director to sponsor a toilet seat if my name was engraved on it. He said he’d do it in felt tip. I didn’t take up the offer.
Marcus du Sautoy, offers a unique (well, mathematically, anyway) gift:
And it comes with a lovely email certificate, much funkier than some of the other charity gift ones. And he even sent it out even though he’s broken his right hand!
Fab!
Heather and Scott, there’s an easy solution: {Insert the lab supplier of your choice here} should start a registry for these purposes, like amazon does for weddings…
Wish I saw this before christmas, I think donations are are great idea. At the end of the day how many of us actually use things we get as gifts for christmas, why not give someone else the opportunity to do something great with the money.