Since starting this blog almost two years ago, I find one of the most fulfilling things to do with it to be charity aimed.  And I love sharing with you organizations that deserve the recognition because they are doing something special and different but incredibly beneficial.

Memebers Unite is a unique organization that lets it’s members make a contribution and then choose which organization gets that donation – this month is $5,000.  Members can rate campaigns, discuss the options and interact on the site.  Once the chosen charity is settled on, the monthly donations (as little as $5.00) will be pooled and given to the charity.

Here is a little more about Members Unite in words better than I can explain it!

About Members Unite:
Members Unite is a simple, interactive, fun way to fund amazing projects. We find the most interesting, impactful, meaningful projects and then let our members figure out which ones get funded. This is possible because the projects are funded through member contributions. And the members ultimately control the outcome each month. We’re all in this together. There’s a saying we love… One person giving $20 is a drop in the ocean. One thousand people giving $20 brings clean water to a village for a lifetime. Members Unite helps us all do more than we could do on our own.

I LOVE this idea.  Not only is it a way to give back in an affordable way, but it is an amazing opportunity to teach my children about giving back.  Sure, it is great to take toys and baskets to places near our home, and we do that a lot.  But I want my children to understand that there are needs world wide.  Not just in our back yard.

So I got my 5 year old, Katie and my 4 year old, Sarah we sat down and chose to donate $5.00 to the site.  There is a $25 service fee to get started on the site, but with the benefits outweighing the costs by mountains, I happily paid my $30 and then started looking at the projects.

As we looked and read about all of the charities that were available to rate and vote on this month, I could see that my children were going to have a hard time deciding!

Initially, they both went for giving man’s best friend to military members but as I read, their minds changed often.  From giving infants a new lease on life with infant formula to babies in Guatemala (they had me show them where that was on a map – added bonus!), to planting 500 trees in Brazil, the options to make our $5 do something amazing were abundant.

I am glad my girls were deciding because I was stuck between the Immortal Digital Wall of Happiness in new York City and providing 30 tutors to homeless children in Los Angeles.

In the end, my girls went back to the dogs for the military and that is who we decided our $5 would go to.  Not that we really cared who won – everyone is so deserving!  And we’ll make sure we go back each week and vote again for their chosen charity so we can help it win.  We’ve even marked the day on our calendar (added bonus!).

I can tell you that MembersUnite.com made me a very proud Mom today.  It was wonderful to hear my girls discussing – with amplified enthusiasm – which charity deserved their $5 and why.  I loved the squeals of excitement, the – somewhat – friendly debate -and the reasoning that they used to decide.  I am completely impressed with their ability to seemingly understand what they were doing.

Take a minute and open your own account with Member Unite.  You can sign up and read about the projects for free.  But then take a moment and think about what your $5, $10 or even $20 contribution can do to make a serious impact in people’s lives.  Consider the one time $25 membership fee to be your donation to these causes.  And then let your children loose! And watch with dismay and pride as they learn the invaluable lesson of giving back in such an easy way!

SIGN UP NOW and open up a whole new world to you and your children in a wonderful, easy way!