Clothing is the most popular type of baby gift, because new mothers need so many of them.

Next time you’re attending a baby shower and plan on giving a oneside (those little all-in-one baby suits), buy one from Baby Teresa.

This Tasmanian company, launched only in September 2009, donates one onesie for every suit you buy, for a baby in need. Most recently a donated shipment of onesies went to a benevolent organisation that helps mothers in need in Uganda.

Choose from short-sleeved or long-sleeved 100% cotton onesies in cute stripes from just $AUD29.95.

Forbes ran a great story about a company which has tapped into people’s concern about people in Third World countries being paid fairly for their work. Ten Thousand Villages works with over 130 artisan groups in 38 countries who make fair trade jewellery, home decor, gifts, clothing and other items and is considered one of the largest companies in this field (it netted $US24 million in sales in 2009, up from $US10 million in 2000). In addittion to its website, it also has bricks-and-mortar stores in upscale neighbourhoods to reach the affluent gift-buyer.

There are a lot of fantastic fair trade websites out there! Here is a not-exhaustive list of 44 other fair trade websites (let me know about others!) that you might like to know about for truly unusual anniversary, birthday, christening, Christmas, engagement, housewarming, Valentines Day and wedding gifts that will help to support artisans in developing countries..

These ones feature artisans’ works from a number of countries
Pachacuti (I want their amethyst & blue topaz necklace), A Better Footprint (little boys will love the recycled cans made into toy cars), Global Goods Partners (how cute is their hot pink dog collar?!) Global Sister Goods (make Christmas an international affair with their Zulu nativity set), Serrv (I’m loving their Neela bright blue ceramic tile towel hooks), World Next Door (I love their Zulusports brightly coloured bracelets), World of Good (created by eBay), Trade As One (see their sweet children’s elephant puzzle), Manos de Madres (my niece would love their dresses), Gifts With Humanity (the Tree of Life wall art made from recycled oil drums is very now), Five Accessories, Fair Trade Marketplace, One World Projects (you’ve gotta see their gift baskets!), Global Exchange Store (check out their ingenious baby pumice stone feet), Pangea Collection (intricate artisan jewellery), World Shoppe (check out their pretty greeting cards from Bangladesh), Generation Wonder (your little girl might like their pink heart purse), and Brindabella Baby.

Central & South America
Ecobre of Mexico makes beautiful hand-hammered copper items, including unique copper kitchen sinks), Pueblito (it sells a range of South American jewellery including a striking seed necklace), Propueblo (their banana husk tissue box from Ecuador could make a great housewarming gift), Mayan Hands (check out the purple chenille shawl), Maya Works (the children’s backpacks are great value), Shop Mayu (see their beautiful alpaca throws), Partners for Just Trade (they’ve got some fun animal pillows in Spanish – great for kids), Inca Kids (check out their handknitted cupcakes), Kusikuy (Bolivia and Peru), Basura Bags (they make amazingly colourful bags and totes from 100% chip packets in Honduras – quite striking and a cool way to clean up the streets).

Africa
Shea Yeleen, Baskets of Africa (stunning grass baskets), Bridge for Africa (I’m loving their cool telephone wire baskets), Suubi(hope) (check out their particularly funky t-shirts), Indego Africa (be a geek with a conscience using their laptop sleeve made in Rwanda), Rwanda Baskets, Leakey Collection (eye-catching necklaces made by the Maasi in Kenya), and Tropical Items (out-of-the-ordinary raffia hats made in Madagascar).

Asia
Rupalee (fantastic Christmas decorations), Tilonia (lovely cotton tablecloths), Mata Traders (great accessories and clothing from India), Orijyn (Laos silver and silks), Wear Gianna (from India, Laos and Thailand), and Brag Bags (which makes beautiful bags in Vietnam – my favourite is the overnight bag).

There are also some others you might like to visit, including Make Piece (which sells pretty jewellery made by African-American women living below the poverty line in Washington DC), Shanti Boutique (see their Buddhist jewellery), and Taraluna (which has a variety of fair trade items, including a wooden earring stand made in India).

One of the more intriguing offers I’ve seen is this wonderful win-win idea to help charities benefit from people giving their time and to help fill hotels which are still suffering thanks to the GFC.

Donate 8 hours (one day) of your valuable time to community service and you can receive a complimentary night (or 50% off) your room at 53 Sage hotels across the US. Some of these hotels under the Sage banner include Marriott, Sheraton, and the Hilton Garden Inn.

The charity needs to be a registered 501(c)3 non profit organization but hey – a free night! That could be great as as add-on or as part of a special anniversary, birthday or engagement gift.

The offer ends 20 December 2009.

Many (if not most) retailers who sell gift cards don’t give you back the cash on your unused portion.

So if you got a $50 gift card from Grandma to spend at say, Amazon, and you bought a book for $39.95, you’d have $10.05 left over. Which isn’t enough to buy really anything else once shipping’s added unless you spend more money, so it’s pretty common that it goes unspent. And you’re left thinking, what a waste!

One clever US website at www.giftcardonor.com allows you to select from a long list of American retailers, enter the amount/s owing (if you have a few not-fully-used gift cards), the state you live in and voila! You see a list of potential charities that you can donate the remaining money to.

But best of ALL, you can buy the gift cards there too – at a discount! Again, there’s a big list of well-known retailers that make available gift cards (perhaps they were left over from a promotion or have much shorter expiry dates, for example). So, I selected one of my favourites, Williams-Sonoma – and it was 15% off. These cheap gift cards range from 1-2% to 40% off the value remaining on the gift cards which means most of them have strange, not-rounded off amounts – like one I saw with a value of $US293.25 selling for $US249.26. 

Like eBay, you can also sell your unwanted or partially used gift cards and receive cash for them, but this website is the first one I’ve seen that you can actually donate the proceeds to charity.

There are a lot of people – my sister is one of them – who’s prepared to give a birthday gift, but doesn’t like the commercialism of Christmas gift-giving.

In 2004, Kirsten paid for a pig in a Third World country for Dad as his Christmas gift (yes he is an Aquarius, but since he has a few planets in Capricorn, he’ll never be as hippie-ish as she’d wish). So while he wasn’t particularly thrilled that he’d bought Babe for someone else, if you want your gifts to DO something for people (regardless of your Sun sign), there are heaps of options, with Oxfam being one of the best-known organisations for helping to support people in developing countries.

Another I recently discovered is Goodshop.com. At this fantastic US website, which lists more than 1,000 stores, up to 30% of your gift purchase will go to your favorite cause. It lists stores specialising in arts, crafts and hobbies through to travel and everything in between. 

You simply select your chosen charity (I entered the Salvation Army as an experiment) and selected the Gifts & Flowers category. There you’ll find all the websites listed with their donation amounts, with the highest in that category (6-10%) belonging to gift retailer Uncommon Goods. In the Computer Hardware & Electronics section (hey, techie gifts appeal to many Aquarians!), buying toner from 123 Inkjets will create a 14% donation of your purchase price.

It really is the gift that keeps on giving.