Do-gooder e-cards: Worth buying?
So e-cards are one of those things that I've always thought should be free -- kind of like e-mail. But the speed with which do-gooder e-card dealios are popping up makes me think that maybe my thinking is outdated. A couple of cases in point:
Send e-card, plant real tree in real world. If the $25 required to plant a tree through L.A.-based TreePeople seems a bit steep, why not plant a tree in Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua or Panama for just a buck?
Mokugift lets you send an e-Tree AND plant a tree in the real world in the recipient's name. The lucky eTree recipient can click over to their "e-Island" to read your message. Here's my e-Island, set up when I got a tree from the marketing person at Mokugift. I can even embed my e-Island into my blog thusly:
Send e-card, save humanity, support artists. Created by the people behind RE:VISION, Reindeer Greetings lets you pick from 12 artfully designed e-cards for 99 cents (79 cents plus a 20 cent "processing fee" you only find out about once you're ready to buy) -- with 41 cents of that going to Architecture for Humanity, an innovative humanitarian organization I love.
I'm still not sure how I feel about these pay-per-e-card ideas. On the one hand, I just can't adjust to the idea of buying e-cards -- and I'm not sure why I wouldn't just give the whole 99 cents to Architecture for Humanity, rather than just 41 cents via the card.
That said, people who pooh-pooh the idea of buying something with a portion going to charity -- arguing that it's better to just donate the money -- rarely give that money directly to charity anyways. I can complain that only 41 cents goes to Architecture for Humanity, but I didn't exactly have solid plans to donate any money to Architecture for Humanity this holiday season.... Isn't 41 cents better than 0 cents?
Plus, I do like that these new e-cards seem to have more meaning than the traditional free e-cards. What do you think?
Top image courtesy of someecards
I've been doing that for two holiday seasons running now.
The one I donate to is Heifer International. They actually send you a number of hard copy cards, or you give you the option of sending e-mail cards if you'd rather.
I like it. No crowds, no lines, no driving, no shopping, no stress, and I always get compliments from the recipients.
However, as more and more non-profits use this strategy of, "give a gift in someone's name", to solicit donations, I wonder if there is a way of checking them out.
Posted by: James | December 20, 2007 at 07:03 PM
First: Sorry that the poll wasn't actually working most of the day. We had a lil technical snafu here at Emerald City --
More to the point: Those are more straight-out donations though -- with the recipient being notified via card (or ecard) that a donation's been made in their name. What I'm wondering about are the primarily e-card type ideas....
Totally love Heifer International though :)
Posted by: Siel | December 20, 2007 at 08:01 PM
The artistic ecards from www.jacquielawson.com and www.ojolie.com combined with personal messages can replace the sincerity of the traditional paper cards. These sites are not supported by ads, and they are work of art. So it is more a matter of personal conviction if one thinks the all ecards should be free.
Posted by: SS | January 11, 2008 at 02:51 PM