[Photo by: katharine J. Moriarty]

The best kind of philanthropy is the one that comes right from the bottom of our hearts. An act of kindness that stems from the deepest and most pristine part of our hearts (souls/social conscious – whatever you believe in).

Therefore the best way to reach out is to combine something we are very passionate about, something we do as a hobby, with the act of kindness.

For us, creative people, making an handmade token of love to someone in need of either love or the handmade item – mostly both – is a fabulous way to reach out. I encourage you to go ahead and do so..

Someone needs love and you have lots of love to give.

Someone need a warm hat or quilt and you have knitting needles, a few woolpacks and the will to help.

Here are a number of charity options to leverage your talent and love for everything handmade to the benefit of someone in need:

• Cards for Kate Card Drive – Jennifer Mc’Guire who organizes many card drives is now running one to cheer up 5yr Kate and her family. Wee Kate Mc’Rae was diagnosed with an aggressive type of brain cancer and she, along with her family, are struggling against it. Handmade (or store bought) cards with words of love and encouragement WILL HELP. Deadline: October 1. For more details go to Jennifer’s blog (She also offers fabulous giveaways for the participants).
• Project Butterfly – The Holocaust Museum in Houston, TX is planning an exhibition to commemorate the 1,500,000 innocent children that had perished during the Holocaust. They wish to collect 1.5 Million handmade butterflies, sized 8″ by 10″. You can really let your creativity loose for this wonderful cause of immortalizing the children’s memory. Deadline: June 30, 2011 For more details you can go here.
• Cards For Heroes – Whether you support the military action or not, one thing is in consensus: the deployed soldiers who are risking their lives need and deserve your support. This wonderful organization collects (only) handmade cards and send them to the deployed soldiers. they constantly need more cards. For more information check out their website.
• Stitches From The Heart – An organization which collects hand knit and crochet hats, booties, blankets, and sweaters for newborn and premature babies. For more information, check out their website and click the “How Can I Help” button.
• Warm Woolies – This non-profit collects hand-knitted sweaters, vests, hats, mittens, and socks and send them to poverty-stricken children around the world to help them warm up during the cold winter. For more information check out their website.

There are many more opportunities to help out there. Just search Google for “cards for a cause”, “creating for a cause” “scrapbooking for a cause” and find out more charity options, perhaps some are more suitable for you. If you are not from an English speaking country, try to run the search at your native language for opportunities near home.

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If you know of any other charity opportunity you are passionate about, don’t hesitate to share a link at the comment section below.