Great Father's Day Gift Idea - Universalgiving.org

Universalgiving.org sent me email - I don't know if they're hooked up with donorschoose.org or what, but I liked their idea so I don't really care how they got my name. Anyway the gist of it is they help you choose nonprofits to give to as a gift for Dad.

Here's part of the message they sent:
"Instead of another tie, why not...
• provide clothing for a family of four in Peru
• sponsor an orphanage meal in the Dominican Republic
• provide computer training for teens in Gambia
• help a child learn to read in rural Ghana or
• find something else that strikes your Dad's fancy with a casual browsing through our hundreds of other exceptional opportunities

Whichever way you decide to honor your dad this Father's Day, know that UniversalGiving represents a trustworthy and generally fantastic option for honoring loved ones while uplifting our world community."

I liked this, so I found a great organization, Kupenda, that helps children in Africa with disabilities and donated to them on behalf of my father. I hope my dad doesn't mind my writing this here, but the reason I selected this organization is because my dad is a polio survivor, paralyzed in the right arm, upper left arm, and chest since age 16. He became a successful lawyer, got married, had 2 children and has been active in Childrens TLC, a Kansas City-based organization which teaches disabled children & Wheels for Freedom, a national organization that provides wheelchairs to disabled children. He also sponsored an African man to attend college in Kansas. I think my dad is a wonderful example for children with disabilities so I told the organization about him as well. Happy early Father's Day, Dad!

The great thing about universalgiving.org is it has a huge selection of organizations to choose from and there are also volunteer opportunities. Say for example I wanted to volunteer for Kupenda, they have a program that takes volunteers to Kenya to help educate the children. And it works with Paypal so it's all easy on the transaction side. I gave a little extra to cover the online transaction fee so that Kupenda wouldn't have to bear that burden on their end, but one way or the other it's taken out of the donation amount. Universalgiving.org also takes donations, of course, to keep them around providing such a great service.