fashion mags

confession: i have a little weakness for fashion magazines. i do. vogue, instyle, marie claire... i love them all.  getting all comfy on the couch, with a yummy warm beverage in hand and the latest issue of vogue to flip through is one of my favorite, my baby's asleep-the house is tidied up-i just threw a load in the washer-i have 5 minutes before he wakes up, things to do. i promise guys, the mags do have some redeeming qualities, there are lots of very interesting articles and... stuff. now, let me tell you the reason for my confession.  the other day as i was reading through this month's issue of marie claire, i came across an article called "10 ways to give back" and it offered a "charity cheat sheet" of 10 different ideas to pay it forward in 2012. i thought i'd share a few of my favorites:

1- infinitefamily.org - a video mentoring site that connects you with african preteens and teens for weekly video conversations

2- goodshop.com - a site that works with 2,500 retailers like amazon, apple, bloomingdales. and nordstroms allowing you to donate a percentage of your purchase to one of the 100,000 non-profits they partner with, and you get to pick the charity it goes to

3- apps that donate: phospho - a 99-cent flashlight app that gives its entire sticker price to sightsavers international, the himilayan cataract project, and vitamin angels to fight global blindness
and snooze an alarm app that charges you 25-cents for the cause of your choice each time you sleep in

4- swipegood.com - you enter your credit- or debit-card number and this secure site rounds up the cost of any purchase to the nearest dollar, giving the difference to the charity of your choice

5- visogive-  a non-profit channel on youtube that allows charities to upload fun videos and earn 60 percent of the ad revenue when you watch

so.... the moral of the story is: sometimes reading fashion magazines helps you make a difference in the world.
(click on any of the links to go check them out)

and have a fabulous weekend!
love,
the 4 charity team