Since the first music CD to help Haiti was released a few weeks after the earthquake, a whole bunch of other artists have come together to produce their own albums to help Haiti. There’s one to suit just about every musical taste, and the proceeds are still going to help. Here are some of the more popular ones:

 A Symphony Of Hope: The Haiti Project (Classical)

  Many Hands: Family Music for Haiti (Family)

Are You Listening (Gospel)

Everybody Hurts (UK)
We Will Lift You Up (FOR Haiti Relief) (Inspirational)

So, everyone in the family got a great Christmas present, right? Wait! What about the little guy with the wagging tail who make life so bright for all of you?

Happily, Kohl’s is having a HUGE sale on Animal Planet pet items right now. These are all high quality pet items, where some of the proceeds from Animal Planet licensed products will go to help Animal Planet’s R.O.A.R. initiative (Reach Out and Respond) which helps animal causes around the world.

My personal favorite is the first item pictured below. It’s like a “mobile home” for your dog. If you need to set up temporary shelter for your dog anywhere around the house or if even you’re travelling, this soft foam portable pet house  provides a safe and cozy space for your pet. The 3-piece folding shelter features built-in fasteners for quick assembly and folds flat for travel or storage. The house measures 18 inches by 18 inches, so it’s perfect for small and medium sized dogs.

Other than that, they’ve got great sales on pet pillows, blankets, and toys. But at these prices they’ll go VERY fast.

And don’t worry about being late–the dog doesn’t know how to read a calendar, so he won’t notice

Here are the links to the sale items on Kohls:

Animal Planet Mobile Dog House – ONLY $10

Animal Planet Large Plush Toy Set – ONLY $10

Animal Planet Pet Bed – ONLY $10

Animal Planet Pet Blanket – ONLY $8

Whoops! It’s almost Christmas and you still haven’t gotten something? Well, never fear, here are some new books available for the Amazon Kindle which would make great gifts, each of which donate to charity. (Of course, you can also send Gift Cards by email too).

Some of the more recent books:

Off the Record – An anthology of short stories based on titles of popular songs, written by British and American authors. Proceeds go to help the National Literary Trust in the UK and the Children’s Literacy Initiative in the US.

Oh Doctor, The Places You Will Go – A cute take-off of the Dr. Seuss classic, focused more on young men and women contemplating a career in medicine. Written and illustrated by a doctor. All proceeds are donated to the Make-a-Wish Foundation.

I’m Not the Biggest Bitch in This Relationship – An anthology of hilarious essays about dogs from some of today’s most popular writers. 10% of royalties go to The Humane Society of the United States.

My Little Pet Dragon – A picture book that sells for $0.99 where all proceeds go to the family of Alyssa Mowery, a 5 year-old girl struck by a car near Las Vegas last year who is tryign to recover the use of her arms and legs.

A Disneyland Christmas – A cook with 170 full color photos of decorations around Disneyland at Christmastime, along with descriptions of the festivities. A great way to prepare for a trip, or to take one vicariously if you can’t make it this year. 50% of proceeds will be donated to Toys for Tots.

Outside Kitty – Know a cat lover? This is a brilliant children’s book that teaches an important lesson to kids about cherishing what they have, and that the grass is not always greener on the other side of the window. Written by Tennessee author JS Moore, 10% of proceeds will go to his local Sullivan County school system to promote literary advocacy.

There you have it, some of the best Kindle books for charity of Christmas 2011, able to be delivered any time before 11:59:50 PM on Christmas Eve still get there on time Happy Reading and Merry Xmas!

A few weeks ago, Honest Ade did something pretty fun. As part of the Honest Cities campaign, they set up stands of Honest Ade drinks in twelve cities around the United States. Then, they put a donation box where people who took the drinks were asked to deposit a dollar.

The results are in. In the irony to end all ironies, Chicago turned out to be the most honest with 99% of people paying. Of course, it was possible for people to stuff the ballot box with extra money to raise their percentage, something Chicago is very good at (I kid ya Chicago, I love ya, with your Wrigley Building and Union Stockyards).

Sadly, New York City ended up finished dead last at 86% honest. To defend my home city, we’re a city where you are constantly rushing from one place to the next, and don’t have time to stop and read signs or see that cameras are filming you. And it’s not uncommon to get free stuff (Long time readers of the blog will know I’ll occasionally mention free stuff I get on the streets of Manhattan, including some delicious Snapple Troparocka I got a while back).

Anyway, congrats to Chicago and to Honest Ade for a fun campaign. Aside from being fun, the “honest dollars” across the country were donated to some great causes, including:

• City Year – 2,779 (56% of the vote) will receive $5,000
• Share Our Strength – 1,451 (29% of the vote) will receive $3,000
• Rails-to-Trails Conservancy – 750 (15% of the vote) will receive $2,000

While on Honest Ade’s website, I noticed they have other great programs. For one thing, they have a kid’s drink that comes in convenient pouches. I always feel bad when I use drink pouches like Capri Sun; after three sips, the drink is gone and there’s a big foil pouch that’ll clog up a landfill somewhere.

With their Drink Pouch Brigade, users can collect drink pouches and send them back to be made into cool products like this Messenger Bag. In addition, Honest Kids will contribute $0.02 per Honest Kids drink pouch you collect to the charity, school or non-profit organization of your choice. If you’ve got all the kids in your organization drinking these things, this can add up quickly. Not to mention that the drinks themselves have less sugar and are produced to be healthy and organic. So you can buy Honest Kids Drinks in Pouches and start collecting those pouches!

This cute little guy is a Lion from the Jane Goodall Collection, available at Amazon. Aside from being huggably adorable, it’s made of all natural cotten and certified non-toxic and chemical free. Made by miYim, each collectable toy is housed in a signature gift box, made with recycled paper, great for gift giving! If you like the lion, check out the equally adorable Gorilla.

Part of the proceeds from each purchase will go towards the Jane Goodall Institute to help support the continuation of Dr. Goodall’s scientific work and her humanitarian vision.

Kauzbots are ridiculously cute robots where 10% of the purchase price goes to help various charities. Pictured here is Karthy Kauzbot, which helps support Talk About Curing Autism, an organization providing resources to provide information, help, and support to families affected by autism. Karthy’s green sister Kale is dedicated to helping the environment, with proceeds going to help The Arbor Day Foundation. Their blue brother Kale supports Lifewater International, which helps provide clean water, sanitation, and hygiene education to developing countries.

The whole family is available on Amazon. Not only are these little critters extremely cute and go to help great causes, perhaps most importantly they serve as reminders to the three very important charities, who need lots of attention and your donations.

If you’re a cook in need of good quality basic kitchen supplies, check out the HIC Brands that Cook Essentials line of cookware and kitchen accessories.

These are highly rated kitchen supplies that meet the specifications of professionals. They’re safer than the cheap supplies you buy in discount stores (for example, their silicone bakeware is 100% silicone and meets European and FDA standards for safety), and yet are much more affordable than high-end bakeware.

A portion of the proceeds for every Essentials item sold goes to C-CAP, Careers through Culinary Arts Program (http://www.ccapinc.org/). This is a great national nonprofit which is the largest independent high school culinary scholarship program in the United States. It manages prepares underserved high school students for college and for careers in both the restaurant and hospitality industries.

Judd Apatow’s humor is certainly not for everyone, but that’s what makes him the perfect editor for I Found This Funny: My Favorite Pieces of Humor and Some That May Not Be Funny At All. In it, he compiles stories from as diverse humorists as Philip Roth, David Sedaris, Steve Martin, Nora Ephron, Jonathan Ames, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Conan O’Brien, Lorrie Moore, Paul Feig, Jonathan Franzen, Alice Munro, and many, many more.

It’s an interesting look into humor. It’s not meant to be a textbook or a deep study into the definition of humor. Instead, it puts together a lot of writing, from poems to short stories to essays, that at one time or another has been considered “funny” and lets you decide.

Proceeds from the book will go to 826 National, a nonprofit tutoring, writing, and publishing organization that promotes creative writing to kids ages 6 to 18.

Paying $400 for a watch may sound like a ridiculous idea, but the Suunto Core Extreme Edition Everest Watch may be worth every penny if you’re a hiker, mountain climber, or do a lot of travelling. It’s a watch that does everything but give you a chauffeured drive to your doorstep. It includes an altimeter (which helps you to calculate altitude, ascent and descent speed, and more), barometer (which you can use to predict weather), compass (to give you direction), and depth measurement (perfect for snorkelers, as the watch is water resistant). It’s a limited edition watch (only 8848 units were made, the number signifying the ), and each has Apa Sherpa’s signature engraved on the back. It’s a whole tracking station, all on your wrist. It’s not for everyone, but for the outdoor enthusiast in your life, you can hardly do any better than this.

A portion of the proceeds from the Suunto Core Extreme Everest will go directly to befefit the Apa Sherpa Foundation.

Well, since we highlighted a book by President Obama in the last post, I figured it’d only be fair to highlight a book by someone in the Bush family.

In President Bush’s best-selling book Decision Points, he talks movingly and proudly about his daughter Barbara and her work with the nonprofit she founded, Global Health Corps, as well as his daughter Jenna and the work she did volunteering for UNICEF in Latin America. Whatever your feeling about President Bush, one thing that’s clear is that he loves his daughters and he loves his country.

During her volunteer work, Jenna met a young woman named Ana, who had been infected with HIV from birth. Her mother died when Ana was three, and she was then shuffled from home to home, enduring horrific abuse and poverty, and all the while hiding her illness from others. The story is an inspiring one of how this young woman overcame the odds, fell in love, had a baby (not infected with the disease), and is today living in hope.

Jenna Bush’s writing style is accessible and inspiring, especially for younger readers who can experience her volunteer work vicariously through her. It (and the other book she wrote with her mom, Read all About It), are impressive coming from someone as young as her, and that both her books donate a portion to charity is equally impressive.