the great secret santa

I am so excited about this, you guys. (Nerd alert, I'm just sayin'.)  The Great Secret Santa is a gift exchange amongst your group of Facebook friends where instead of giving each other gifts everything goes to charity.

All you have to do is sign up, choose a charity and when matches are made your secret santa will make a donation in your name to the charity you chose.

They've made it even easier by giving you four non-profits to choose from.  They represent four distinct yet important causes: ridding the world of extreme human poverty, defending the planet, preventing animal cruelty and fighting cancer.

I signed up last night on Facebook.  My information's been entered and I'll be matched with someone at random from my list of friends via email on December 22nd with all the information on my match.

FYI - the charity that I chose is Millenium Promise.  Millennium Promise is the leading international non-profit organization solely committed to supporting the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals to halve extreme poverty by 2015.  Y'all remember that little 18-page baby I delivered to grad school this week?  With a little kiss from kismet, the Millennium Development Goals - randomly - also happened to be the topic of that final research paper.

I love you, Universe.

Do you like Millennium Promise? You don't have to do secret santa to make a direct donation. Your contribution is tax-deductible and will allow Millennium Promise to support some of the poorest communities in Africa with vital services to advance local health, education, infrastructure, agriculture and entrepreneurship.

One more thing.  In another big ol' smooch from the Universe, Millennium Promise has a program called School 2 School that connects classrooms in impoverished communities in Africa to classrooms in the United States. (See why I chose this one now?)  They also sponsor a program called Connect to Learn that I think some of you will like.  Connect To Learn provides scholarships and technology to girls in developing countries so they can improve their lives, and the world around them.  Oh, and Madonna's the spokeswoman.  Told you you'd like it.  Make a donation - it costs us just $2 a day for Connect To Learn to provide tuition, books, supplies and uniforms for each scholarship recipient.


"Let the future say of our generation that we sent forth mighty currents of hope, and that we worked together to heal the world." — The End of Poverty

Jeffrey D. Sachs, President and Co-Founder, Millennium Promise