Choosing the right gift for loved ones, friends and associates can often be a tricky business so some gift givers choose to make a charitable donation in the recipient’s name instead of opting for a more traditional gift.

Focusing on the recipient’s interests, passions, lifestyle and what would be meaningful to them is the key to a successful giving experience. Consider children, as well as adults, when you’re thinking about charitable gift giving. Giving children a small amount of cash and letting them choose which cause they want to support is a wonderful way to encourage them to become philanthropic adults.

Here are just a few of the many organizations that are worthy of consideration:

• UNICEF – Works for children’s rights, their survival, development and protection by providing them with vaccinations, food, education and much more.
• Kiva – Allows you to make a loan to a low-income entrepreneur across the globe for as little as $25 and help them to start their own business.
• Heifer International – Gives hungry, poor families livestock and training, providing a source of food rather than short-term relief. Recipient families are required to share their animals’ offspring with others, creating an expanding network of hope, dignity and self-reliance.
• National Park Foundation – Helps educate Americans about the their National Parks.
• National Foster Parent Association – Helps foster parents and children through advocacy, services and scholarships.
• Trickle Up – Offers grants, not loans, to women and people with disabilities in Africa, Latin America and Asia living on less than $1 to help them launch their own microenterprises, while providing business training and savings support to build assets.
• Smile Train – Provides cleft lip and cleft palate surgery to children in need, as well as providing cleft-related training to doctors.
• Reading is Fundamental – Books, literacy campaigns, and reading to children.
• Habitat for Humanity – Builds houses for needy families.
• Big Brother Big Sister – Provides mentors to all children who need caring adult role models/special friends.
• Sierra Club – Promotes conservation efforts aimed at protecting communities, wild places and the planet itself.
• Doctors Without Borders – Doctors and nurses volunteer to provide urgent medical care to victims of war and disaster regardless of race, religion, or politics.
• ORBIS International – Focuses on the prevention of blindness and the treatment of blinding eye diseases in developing countries.
• National Center for Tobacco-free Kids – Helps reduce the number of children who will start smoking.
• Rainforest Alliance – Dedicated to the conservation of the planet’s vital tropical forests.
• Children for Children – Promotes community involvement and social responsibility in children from all backgrounds, beginning at a young age.
• What I Did Not Buy – An online community where people choose “not to buy” and can see the impact of that re-directed money on poor people in developing nations.

I would recommend that you use Charity Navigator to help you to evaluate charities before you donate to them. If you’re not sure which charity would be most meaningful to your recipients, let them choose for themselves by giving them a gift card like the ones offered by Just Give, Global Giving and Charity Navigator.

Giving to charities is a clutter-free, feel-good, do-good way to honor the person in whose name the gift is made, and, really, how many people do you know who need more “stuff?

As someone who helps people deal with too much “stuff” and not enough space for it all (FYI: it doesn’t matter how much space you have, you never have enough!), I can tell you that giving gifts that don’t clutter up the receiver’s space or life yet are creative, thoughtful and useful are the best kind you can give .

Here are some clutter-free suggestions for everyone on your holiday list. These will allow you to participate in and enjoy gift giving while at the same time relieving the burden on the recipient. Be sure not to give a well-intended gift that might be misunderstood and that ends up offending the recipient. For instance, if your sister doesn’t like or wear make-up, don’t give her a gift certificate for a make-up consultation. Ditto for other self-improvement services.

Memberships to:

* museums
* zoos
* botanical gardens
* aquariums
* historical societies
* theatre clubs
* state parks, county parks, etc.
* health clubs/gyms
* humane society
* nature conservancy
* AAA (Automobile Club of America)
* Zipcar (Cars parked around a city for members to drive by the hour instead of owning their own vehicles)

Gift Certificates for:

* massage
* facial
* their favorite hair salon
* manicure/pedicure
* health club
* exercise class
* spa
* local greenhouse, nursery or garden center
* bulb or seed catalog
* fun workshop or mini-course
* iTunes music download
* home improvement store to help with the cost of home maintenance
* computer software
* Blockbuster or Netflix
* Starbucks
* car washes
* trip in a helicopter or hot air balloon

Gifts of Service – Create your own voucher good for:

* babysitting
* breakfast in bed
* house cleaning or yard work or snow plowing/shoveling provided by you or someone you hire
* automobile maintenance (oil change, etc.)
* dishwashing for a day, a week, etc.
* running errands for a day, a week, etc.
* helping them with their next spring cleaning
* painting or hiring someone to paint that room they’ve been meaning to get to
* getting something of theirs that is broken repaired
* helping them plant their garden next spring
* helping them organize their photos

* teaching them a skill you have

Consumable Gifts:

* theatre, ballet, concert or symphony tickets
* tickets to an art exhibition or sporting event
* home cooked frozen meals
* homemade cookies, brownies, etc.
* an invitation to their favorite restaurant where you also give them the gift of your love and attention
* their favorite chocolates, wines or cheeses, etc.
* a selection of their favorite, hard-to-find, childhood candies or cookies
* a fruit of the month basket
* a voucher good for homemade meals for a day, a week, etc.
* a selection of organic teas and fair trade coffees or dried fruits and nuts
* dinner cooked by a personal chef
* tickets to a wine tasting or vineyard tour
* their favorite flowers sent to them regularly
* movie passes
* prepaid phone cards
* postage stamps
* frequent flyer miles
* airline tickets to visit you
* a weekend getaway at a bed and breakfast
* a trip to someplace they have never been
* candles
* handmade soap
* already stamped and addressed cards for various occasions (birthday, anniversary, holiday) that can be sent out to friends and family by the elderly or disabled in your life who can’t get out to buy cards or whose handwriting might be too shaky to read
* a voucher good for a walk together, a picnic together, a back-rub/foot-rub, a day of skiing or anything else you know they would like
* a voucher good for some of the perennials in your garden that are getting crowded and need dividing

One nice thing about consumables is that, if you’ve done your homework properly, the recipients consume them – which means you get to buy the same gift next year or even year after year!

Financial, Charitable and Unusual Gifts:

* make a charitable donation in their name (Think about causes and organizations that would be meaningful to them — then you take the tax deduction!)
* donate a book(s) to a library in their name
* pay their phone or cable bill for a month (or more)
* give them a share(s) of stock
* stocks, bonds, CDs, or contributions to a child’s college education fund
* name a star in the cosmos after them

* have a tree planted in their name

Gifts of Classes in:

* music
* dance
* Yoga
* Pilates
* self-defense
* foreign language
* computer
* magic
* continuing education
* art
* pottery
* photography
* jewelry making
* flower arranging
* knitting
* quilting
* sewing
* acting
* cooking
* stand-up comedy
* horseback riding