Each year, Maxim Hygiene celebrates a handful of Fierce Women who are making the world a better place. We believe that at the heart of every community lies women and when their needs are met, society can take larger strides. This year we have featured high school students organizing supply drives for homeless women to a mindfulness warrior working with PTSD and domestic abuse victims in Rwanda, and a New York State Assemblywoman literally pushing the bill on women’s health reform. Not only do we support these Fierce Women through marketing efforts, we donate 10% of our online sales each month to our Fierce Woman’s organization of choice. That means you can support women all year long, by buying our products and using the special promo code associated with each woman and organization! With this first post of the last month of 2016, we’re topping off the year with holiday season giving ideas that can benefit women in need even moreso than all of our great efforts this past year!
In 2016, we supported the following organizations: Global Grassroots, which provides mindfulness coaching and social entrepreneurship training to vulnerable women, #HappyPeriod, a supply drive and fundraising community for women in need, and Days for Girls, an organization that helps girls gain access to quality sustainable feminine hygiene supplies, vital health knowledge, and income-generation opportunities. We also raised money for Breathe Easy India, a charity that helps children living in slums learn about the importance of clean air and gets them physically active, Camions of Care, a local drive efforts that provides supplies to women in need, the Center for Reproductive Rights that fights to protect women’s rights to make their own personal medical decisions and the Ms. Foundation, which has helped to secure woman’s health, safety and economic justice for more than 40 years. Click on the respective links to find out more about the organization’s Fierce founder and how your donations will be used!
In addition to being socially conscious throughout the year, it’s especially important to give during the holiday for these two main reasons: 1) there are SO many more ways to donate and 2) donations during the holiday season are often matched, to make each dollar given more influential. So here are some ideas to get your giving juices flowing….
1. Donate Health & Hygiene Supplies to Women’s Shelters
Feminine hygiene supplies are not covered by food stamps and are generally taxed as a luxury good, making it prohibitively expensive for women in need. Homeless shelters are in constant need of supplies for women, and most of all, funding for personal hygiene supplies like tampons and pads. In fact, tampons and pads are some of the least commonly donated items to shelters, meaning that most nights, shelters are turning women away without enabling them to take care of their hygienic needs.
Try calling some of your local shelters and see what their current needs are or simply head down there with a box of donated lady goods. Consider this – if items like condoms, yeast infection medication, and over-the-counter rash creams can seem like a miracle for those of us during a regular weeknight at home, what a Godsend they must be for women in a time of need! Be sure to buy in bulk for the best savings.
2. Fund a Care Package for Female Refugees
Take a twist on the military care package idea and create a refugee care package for the millions of homeless girls and women huddled in refugee camps this winter across the world. Unofficial counts estimate that over 2 million have fled from Syria and information relayed by health organization workers in the field like MSF indicate things within the country are hellish.
While it’s hard to get supplies to refugees, CARE International has a Letters of Hope program where you can send your words of love to refugees across the world and a Care Package program that sends the requested supplies and aid to where it’s needed, along with some goodies like Jolly Ranchers candy. A 35 dollar donation to CARE provides a woman with a hygiene kit and fifty provides meals for a family for a month; a $100 donation to Save the Children provides a new mother with a newboryborn baby kit including blankets and diapers.
3. Buy Gifts that Give Back to Women’s Causes
A great way to give back in more ways than one is to buy presents that “give back”- these range from products whose manufacturers donate a percentage of their proceeds to products actually made by marginalized women or women starting their own micro-enterprises. From Conscious Step Socks to Peruvian handmade jewelry and Indian saris reconstituted as silk scarves, this Gifts That Give Back Guide will guide you through products from around the world as well as information on the group that created it or that it benefits. Organic tampons and organic cotton balls also make for great stocking stuffers! With our #FierceWomenFunded campaign, you could give the gift of health to not only your intended recipient, but also to one of the many different non profits for women’s empowerment organizations we funded throughout the year!
4. Volunteer
Not all donations during the holidays have to hit your wallet. You can donate time by organizing efforts for a fundraiser or supply drive in your community, or even online through a crowdfunding site. If you spend a lot of time online, you can use your social media accounts to spread word about charity giving campaigns or to educate your networks about different causes. Consider also offering your professional or artistic skills pro-bono to help women-owned businesses or charities that support women through a site like Catchafire.
5. Donate
Often, the most effective way to help an organization is to make a direct donation. Each charity has its own needs, overhead costs, and goals and thus benefits from the ability to use the money where it is needed as opposed to having it earmarked for certain supplies or campaigns, however contributors often feel more confident in donating just for supplies. Many organizations have package deals that you can ‘shop’ and actually compare between other similar organizations should you want your buck to go the furthest. Before giving, just make sure to check the organization’s registration and grade on CharityNavigator; the website will help you assess how far a dollar goes in each organization and to what, overall.
Glamour recently published a fabulous 31-day list of small amounts to donate each day, to a different organization, for a different cause around the world. Ten dollars to Path equals an early cervical cancer test, saving a mother’s life; $25 to Embrace Global fits a premature baby with a high-tech health monitor to boost its chances of survival. Just $1 given to the Posse Foundation transforms into $5 of college tuition money for a low-income U.S. teenager and $10 to Projectcure sends $400 worth of medical supplies to doctors and under-equipped hospitals globally. Check it out for recommendations and be sure to give, however you can this season and, for the rest of the year.