I am two weeks away from Bebe’s birthday – have I done anything in preparation? Ummm No. Mostly because I am waiting on clients to pay so as usual I will probably be running around like a crazy woman the day before her party.
One of my posts, A Charity Birthday?, received some notice by a company that helps parents create online charity parties for their kids. Echoage has a unique and time saving idea that allows children to give back. One of the comments to that post also pointed out ECHOage as well so I thought I would look into it for anyone who struggles with birthdays like I do every year (all four of them LOL).
Parents go online to the Echoage website and register their child for a charity birthday. Invitations are all sent through email and instead of partygoers bringing gifts, they make an online payment to the site who divides all the money received. After a 15% administration fee is deducted from the company, half goes to the child for ONE SPECIAL GIFT, and the other half is donated to one of the charities featured on their website.
Bear with me here… I like the idea. I really do BUT I could do this at my house without deducting 15% and I think that might be the biggest problem I have with it. Not all of the money received goes to the charity. Plus, while ECHOage has charities the benefit other children, (which I love), there is only seven of them. Four from the US and three in Canada. I know of many more charities, including local ones. The only way around choosing one of their charities, is to have guests bring the money they would have donated to you and you make the donation yourself. However, guests don’t get a tax receipt because when they pay online (as ECHOage is designed to work) the money they donate goes toward a gift for your child AND a donation to a charity. But you will get the tax receipt because it is your party.
Follow me so far? K.
Again I love the concept as it’s designed to work. Guests don’t have to drive all over for gifts, both the birthday child and a charity benefit and you don’t have to even host a real party… Unless you want to. I wonder though,how interested a child would be in having a party like this so I went my birthday girl herself, if she could donate the money to her brownie leader (who does a thankless job she says) then she isn’t interested. Hmmm.
I don’t think Bebe is being selfish when she also added that she likes to have her parties "here" meaning home. So I explained that she could still do that and the resounding answer was "Nah".
I think that after some contemplation on my part, that ECHOage is a good concept, if you can get past guests to feel comfortable giving online and then still having a party if the birthday girl or boy wants to. The site is definitely worth the look for anyone who is looking for an environmentally friendly and unique birthday celebration. There is an extensive FAQ on the site that answers quite possibly any questions you could come up with.
In my opinion (and it’s always been my thought) that the best part of the birthday is the celebrating. Even in my old age, I still like to have people come and celebrate my living and breathing for so long. I don’t think that makes me selfish – having your friends and loved ones share your special day is part of saying, "Hey! I’m glad you’re on this earth!"
It’s worth the thought in my book to do something like this for Peanut’s birthday because he will only be three and just beginning to understand the birthday concept. However, instead of choosing a website to host my charity party, I will ask friends and family to either contribute a monetary gift OR a new/gently used and safe baby product or clothing to donate to our local pregnancy center. After Peanut was born, I went there for diapers and clothes for him for awhile (because we literally started all over with Peanut, from cribs to blankets… you name it, we needed it). They offer educational instruction for parents and some spiritual instruction if you are willing to receive it. They also provide large gift baskets full upon the delivery if you are registered and notify them when you have the baby. And yes, it is tax deductible.
Charity birthdays are a wonderful idea and sites like ECHOage are making it easier for kids and parents to give back and still celebrate.
I still believe that it might be difficult to do in our area because of the income level and our economy. I know that’s more of a reason to give back. I know I loathe the shopping, and planning and all the prep that goes into a party but nothing makes me happier than to see them happy on their day so in the end, whatever you do, it’s all worth it, Right?
* For any family reading this, once again, No more Barbies, Bratz, or Pollys – Those girls have taken over!
