The Charlotte Observer reports on a creative way to give from both the heart and the pocketbook:
Idea is to inspire guests to forgo potentially needless gifts, donate to charities.
By Orla Swift, orla.swift@newsobserver.com
As party invitations go, this one was a bit strange.
It wasn't only that Perri Kersh, the hostess, was asking guests to bring their checkbooks. Plenty of parties are organized around selling items, from Tupperware to Avon. The odd twist was that Kersh offered no merchandise at her spendfest, only good will.
It's called a Giving Party. Kersh came up with the idea last year, after seeing Bill Clinton promote his book “Giving: How Each of Us Can Change the World” on “The Oprah Winfrey Show.”
Kersh hoped to inspire guests to forgo potentially needless gifts for friends and family and instead make charitable donations in their names.
She scheduled last year's event a week after Thanksgiving. Of the 175 people invited, 65 attended. Representatives from several nonprofits gave presentations. Kersh set up computers so guests could donate online to any charity using credit cards. And at the exit, she put a box in which people could anonymously report how much they'd donated.
In three hours, she raised more than $12,000.
“What we really want to emphasize is how easy it is to give a party like this,” says Kersh, a professional organizer from Chapel Hill who also writes a blog about living simply called “Enough is Enough.” Kersh created a Web site, www.giving-party.org, and a blog, givingparty.wordpress.com, to spread her new idea.
“Not to be too big thinking,” she says, “but we were like, ‘Let's start a movement here where it's easy to do.' ”
Already, she has helped organizers in Charlotte and Davidson, and in Charleston organize their own parties this year.
At Kersh's party, the guests' donations ranged from $20 to $700, Kersh says.
“We all just felt so good about it,” said Casey Saussy, a party guest who became so inspired that she went on to give even more after the party to sponsor a child in Zambia.
“Everyone was whipping out their checkbooks or credit cards,” Saussy said. “Instead of picking out clothes or earrings, we were changing lives.”
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