Go to a fair in your vicinity or check out some of the organizations listed here. If your preferred organization is not on our list ask them if they provide alternative gifts and let us know if they do. If they don't you can still write a card yourself, and just add "I donated ... for ... in your name".
If you feel your friends expect a traditional "stuff" gift, make it a smaller one and add a small alternative gift. We heard about several people who were more happy about the latter!
Tell your friends that you don't want any stuff this holiday season. Point them to this site, or whatever site you'd like to recommend them. If you don't specifically care for the symbolic certificates that come with alternative giving organizations, point them to Charity Navigator as an excellent resource. We also can provide you with business card size holiday greeting cards that list our web address. Just ask.
Please let us know if you have any ideas for improving this site. In particular, we'd love to hear about alternative gift fairs or organizations.
If you have a website yourself, please consider linking to this site.
If you are already a contributor on Wikipedia, you could help improve the article Alternative giving and related topics such as voluntary simplicity. (However, please don't create a new account for this, since this would be against a Wikipedia policy.)
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