Jim Dine "Optional Autostar"
Jim Dine “Optional Autostar”

The sentiment around Mother’s Day is a nice one but we’ve never been crazy about all the marketing of flowers, cards, candy that can go with it; they often seem in contradiction to the gist – of honoring and thanking your mother – by blending in the desperate shelling out of $$ to buy a token, fueled by guilt and/or obligation (We’re talking about grown-up kids, here; the little ones seem to delight in making breakfast-in-bed and homemade cards and gifts…)

We were delighted to see The Robin Hood Foundation‘s great idea for an alt-Mother’s Day gift that is easy-to-send, personal, and speaks volumes: a beautiful card telling your mama that you’ve given a donation in her name to a charity. The card will be specially inscribed and addressed with hand calligraphy. It’s easy: you just go to “Donate in Honor or Memory Of..” on their site, choose the card you like (out of several by different artists), click “order, and fill in the info: how much you would like to donate (there’s a $50 minimum), whom you would like to honor, the occasion…To ensure delivery by Mother’s Day, you have to place your order by Friday, April 30th (two days from now).

You can give these card donations for any other kind of gift as well: birthdays, anniversaries, thank you’s, even as house or dinner party gifts, instead of stuff nobody really needs. If the $50 minimum is too steep, you can always go in on it with a sibling or a friend. The giftee won’t be told the amount you are giving.

Of course, you can always make your own homemade card and donation to whatever charity your mama (or whomever) would prefer.

If you’ve found illumination, joy, or inspiration in this post, please consider supporting Improvised Life. It only takes a minute to make a secure donation that helps pay our many costs. A little goes a long way towards helping Improvised Life continue to live ad-free in the world.

Support Improvised Life ♥

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *