San Diego High School Student Helps Holiday Shoppers find Charities for Alternative Gifting

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) November 29, 2009 --

Michael Wahl, a San Diego High School Junior has designed a website AlternativeGifting.com to help holiday shoppers find charities, that accept donations in the name of the person on the shoppers gift list. This is known as Alternative Gifting, a form of gift giving in which the giver makes a donation to a charitable organization in the recipient’s name, rather than giving an item. That way, instead of giving a present which the receiver might not have much use for, a letter or certificate is issued by the Charity addressed to the gift recipient, thanking him or her for the donation, and describing how his "gift" will be used.

The beauty of giving an "Alternative Gift" is that it is very efficient. Gift givers can always find a charity with a cause of interest to the person the present is for. It makes more people happy than just the gift recipient, and it never becomes a gift that just "gathers dust".

Says Michael, "If you have a friend who has everything, and you have no idea what to give him, an alternative gift to a charity works great. Your friend appreciates the gesture, and you help someone more needy too."

Michael is a Junior at Canyon Crest Academy, San Diego, California. Avidly interested in the internet, and website design, at 13 he took summer classes in HTML design at Mira Costa College. He got the idea for AlternativeGifting.com when he attended an "Alternative Christmas Market" sponsored at the nearby Solana Beach Presbyterian Church. At the Alternative Christmas Market various charities set up booths and tables promoting their Charities to attract donors to buy handicrafts or make donations as Christmas gifts.

Michael decided to bring a similar idea forward to the world wide web. He created AlternativeGifting.com as an online Directory, where he collects a growing selection of charities suitable to receive donations for Alternative Gifting. "Alternative Gifting is not only for Christmas", says webmaster Michael, "Donations given as gifts can be made at any time, and for any gifting event such as Anniversaries, Birthdays, Fathers Day, Mothers Day, Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, and so on."

Michael advises, "The best way to use AlternativeGifting.com is to first think about what cause the person you want to give a gift is interested in. Then look at the charities that serve that need and choose one which makes sense for a personal alternative gift."

Some of the different causes included in the directory are those concerned with Animals, the Blind, Cancer, Children, Environment, Health, Homelessness, International Relief, Veterans and Military. Then within the category of each cause are descriptions and direct links to nearly 200 charities individual charities.

alternative gifting     charitable     charities     charity     donate to charity     donations