Albert Camus once said, "Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present." Today, philanthropy is gaining ground in a world obsessed with profiteering. When success is so often snap-judged by possessions, people are actively seeking out genuine alternative means of establishing feelings of worth without monetary or material gain.
Weddings are no exception. Aware that weddings can be perceived as expensive, showy and indulgent, couples are looking to charity in order to spread the wealth and - indeed - love.
Prince William and Kate Middleton are getting into the spirit by requesting that guests and well wishers make a charitable donation as a wedding gift. The donations will go to 26 selected charities that are close to the couple's hearts, including the Army Widows' Association and the Zoological Society of London, which is working to protect endangered rhinos, tigers and elephants.
Gift lists count as one of the most effective ways of helping a good cause. If you've already set up home and have no use for more towels or tin openers, then it's a logical, as well as ethical, solution. Of course, you could opt for a standard department store wedding list alongside an alternative gift list - that way, you can look forward to some pieces for your home and do good at the same time. You might even build your own gift list by researching charities associated with causes you're particularly passionate about - not only will this give your wedding list a personal dimension, it will give lesser known charities a valuable platform.
Wedding favours, too, are popular, and aid organisations are coming up with increasingly inspired ways to treat guests while benefiting a good cause - far more satisfying than a bag of sugared almonds.
A huge variety of causes and companies are involved in the ever-growing art of giving. Think about a favourite foundation, your target aim and how to achieve it within the scale and style of your wedding. To get you started, here's some philanthropic food for thought.
Cool Earth
This Cornish-based conservation charity works directly alongside indigenous communities to protect the world's most endangered rainforest. Preventing deforestation is crucial in the fight against climate change, as well as protecting the rainforest's unrivalled levels of biodiversity.
The charity has a series of inspired initiatives for weddings, including sponsoring a rainforest tree in the name of each guest. A certificate of sponsorship for a tree that would otherwise be destroyed within the next 18 months can be put in each table place. With prices starting at just £1 per tree, this fabulous favours idea makes a huge difference for a fractional price.
On the wedding list front, your guests can protect areas of rainforest in your names, which can be viewed on Google Maps via your Cool Earth account. The charity also produces a range of tree-protecting gift tags, invitations and thank you letters - all cleverly contributing to the precious rainforest cause.
www.coolearth.org
Oxfam Unwrapped
Oxfam offers a variety of ways for conscience cleansing and good-cause giving, from sourcing your dress or donating it after the big day to gift registering and wedding favours. Their wedding list allows your guests to purchase all manner of life-changing gifts for people in poor communities across the world. It might be kitting out a classroom, care for a vulnerable child or - one of the bestsellers - a goat for a family in poverty.
Oxfam's wedding favours packs provide more extraordinary gifts such as teaching a child, health check-ups, safe water, chicks, bags of seeds and animal vaccinations. What's more, the favours cards come in a range of designs to make for pretty place settings.
www.oxfam.org
ShelterBox
Now one of the biggest international disaster relief organisations, Cornish born-and-bred ShelterBox continues its high profile bid to deliver humanitarian aid to people affected by disaster across the globe. Donating any amount will help to stock their relief boxes with essentials such as tents, blankets, water, a stove, purification equipment and cooking utensils, or you may choose to select individual items to donate. Alternatively, purchase favours such as St Piran's flag tea towels and mugs for gifts with a Cornish - and humanitarian - twist.
www.shelterboxshop.org.uk
Cornwall Hospice Care
Providing the highest quality care in the community when it's needed the most, this charity works wonders for people of all ages suffering from life-threatening illness in Cornwall. Their wedding favours comprise beautifully designed tent cards personalised with your wedding details and incorporating a lottery number. Each lottery number will be entered into a special weekly prize draw, whereby your guests have the opportunity to win one of 53 cash prizes. At just £1 per favour, these make distinctive gifts for a truly deserving cause.
www.cornish-hospices.co.uk/lottery.asp
Cancer Research UK
Wedding favours in the form of personalised favour cards and pin badges contribute to this commendable cause, explicitly showing your support. A cute limited edition cupcake pin badge designed by bridal designer Jenny Packham is currently available, which makes for a kitsch keepsake. Beyond wedding favours, you might choose to request donations instead of gifts so that guests can contribute to the charity's renowned research.
https://giveincelebration.cancerresearchuk.org
Give It
The various strands of this organisation allow you to tailor your wedding list to a cause you feel strongly about. If poverty in Africa strikes a chord, peruse The African Wedding List, whereby guests' donations go to a list of worthy beneficiaries such as HOPEHIV, Street Child Africa, Sightsavers International and Save the Children.
The Alternative Wedding List covers a broad range of charities at home and abroad; from a support session for a breast cancer patient through Breast Cancer Care to bereavement counselling for children through Barnardo's, you can select specific gifts that tug at your heartstrings. And eco warriors might choose to sponsor a puffin through the RSPB or protect turtle nesting sites through the Marine Conservation Society via The Green Wedding List.
www.giveit.co.uk
The Heartfelt Project
This fantastic organisation supplies funky and fabulous wedding favours such as brooches, bookmarks, fridge magnets, key rings, place cards and hanging hearts made from felt and beads. Each one is traditionally hand-sewn by a group of South African women striving for survival against the most adverse circumstances. With a mission to continually create employment for women in the rural community of Makapanstad and to help support a local charity fighting TB and HIV, these unique and contemporary African designs are testimony to the strength of both the group and Heartfelt's work.
www.theheartfeltproject.com
The Donkey Sanctuary
Sidmouth-based charity, The Donkey Sanctuary, works in some of the poorest communities in the world to reach those donkeys most in need of help. Their Donkey Lifeline Gifts can be donated to a specific country or project - from fly masks to prevent eye infections and blindness in donkeys from hot countries to wood shaving bedding to keep donkeys in the UK warm and healthy.
The charity's mobile units support working donkeys in countries such as Ethiopia, India, Kenya and Mexico, their team of professionals working alongside the locals to dispense veterinary care, education, harnessing and farriery.
Purchasing items from any of their range of gifts (from homeware and toys to ethnic products and ornaments), adopting or fostering a donkey or simply donating money will ensure that they can continue to provide such vital care for impoverished donkeys worldwide. And, if you choose the gift route, your guests get to keep some pretty cute keepsakes from your day to boot!
www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk
CHICKS
Providing free respite weekends to disadvantaged children from across the UK, CHICKS retreats in Cornwall and Devon are an adventurous escape, generating life-changing memories for all the children who visit. It's easy for us to take our beautiful surrounds for granted, but by helping CHICKS to share our countryside with inner city children and allowing them to roam and play freely away from the harsh realities of their urban lives, you are offering a rare and unforgettable gift and lasting legacy from your day.
You can support their worthy cause by setting up a Gift of Hope fund (via a text donation hotline) or by purchasing any of their In Celebration Giving range. Tailored to every couple, you can opt for wedding favours matched to your colour scheme such as pin badges, favour cards and kids' wristband favours, or you can even donate a bench or plant a tree at a CHICKS retreat for a permanent reminder of your day.
www.chicks.org.uk
More ideas for a benevolent bash
Christian Aid www.presentaid.org
Ethical Superstore www.ethicalsuperstore.com
Fair Gift www.fairgift.co.uk
Ganesha www.ganesha.co.uk
NSPCC www.nspcc.org.uk
Our Green Wedding List www.ourgreenweddinglist.com
Raising Angels and Debenhams www.weddingangels.co.uk www.debenhams.com
Red Cross www.redcross.org.uk
Wedding List Giving www.weddinglistgiving.com
Fancy throwing a hen do with a charitable twist?
That way you can combine the cocktail swilling and high jinks with some rewarding fun. Maybe enter a charity fun run or walk such as the Race for Life for Cancer Research UK or The SunWalk or The MoonWalk for Walk The Walk, which supports breast cancer research and care. You could celebrate your efforts with a pink party chock full of pink cocktails and cupcakes. Or maybe you and your hens could take the plunge with a sponsored skydive for an ethical, not to mention exhilarating, hen party experience.
words Hannah May
Copyright WED Magazine 2011
