The Mission and Outreach Committee at Towson Presbyterian Church invites you to participate in their Virtual Alternative Gift Market, open Dec. 8–15, 2024.
Each of the ten nonprofits below are providing life-changing services to a world in need. Keep scrolling to learn more about these impactful organizations, and consider making a donation to one or multiple of them during this holiday season.
Equal Exchange fair-trade chocolate will be available to purchase in Thompson Hall after worship on Sunday, Dec. 8, and Sunday, Dec. 15.
Church World Service
Organization Mission
Founded in 1946, Church World Service is a faith-based organization transforming communities around the globe through just and sustainable responses to hunger, poverty, displacement and disasters. CWS meets disaster relief and recovery needs, facilitates sustainable social and economic development, provides assistance and resettlement services to refugees and helps address the root causes of hunger. A cooperative ministry of 37 Christian denominations and communions, CWS sponsors community-wide CROP Hunger Walks across the U.S. to raise awareness and fund to help end hunger locally and globally. The PCUSA is a member denomination.
- Receives a 94% rating (4 stars) from Charity Navigator.
Doctors Without Borders USA
Organization Mission
Doctors Without Borders, USA (DWB-USA) was founded in 1990 in New York City to raise funds, create awareness, recruit field staff, and advocate with the United Nations and US government on humanitarian concerns. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization that provides aid in nearly 60 countries to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters.
- Receives a 98% rating (4 stars) from Charity Navigator.
Global Refuge
globalrefuge.org - Baltimore, MD
Organizational Mission
For more than 80 years, Global Refuge has provided the resources, guidance, and community to help forge a way forward for New Americans. They are committed to helping people reimagine the possibilities while providing a soft place to land. With more than 1,000 partners and 50,000 volunteers, Global Refuge is the largest faith-based national nonprofit exclusively dedicated to helping restore a sense of home to immigrants, asylum seekers, and refugees. Since 1939, they’ve built a legacy of compassion by walking alongside more than 750,000 new neighbors as they rebuild their lives in the United States.
- Receives a 100% rating (4 stars) from Charity Navigator.
The Family Tree
Organizational Mission
Family Tree works alongside people affected by child abuse, domestic violence and homelessness throughout their journey to safety and economic independence, providing emergency residential services, case management and advocacy, therapeutic services, outreach support, housing search and placement, education and employment support, among many other services.
- Receives a 91% rating (4 stars) from Charity Navigator.
Casita Copan
Organizational Mission
If your donation to Casita Copan is a Christmas gift to someone, you will receive a link to a note card that you can download and give to your recipient.
Casita Copan is a nonprofit in Honduras focused on supporting children and single mothers to help keep families together. They believe that no family should be separated and no child should be institutionalized because of poverty alone, which is why their programs for children, youth, and women are designed to address the root causes of child abandonment. Since 2012, Casita Copan has been working directly in Copan Ruinas, Honduras, to develop initiatives that respond to the unique needs of their community.
- Receives a 98% rating (4 stars) from Charity Navigator.
Heifer International
Organizational Mission
Heifer International is on a mission to end hunger and poverty in a sustainable way by supporting and investing alongside local farmers and their communities. They work to end hunger and poverty in partnership with the communities they serve. Their programs support entrepreneurs around the world, creating lasting change from the ground up. They begin with a seed investment of livestock or agriculture, followed by mentorship to help project participants build a business, and ultimately to gain access to supply chains and markets.
- Receives a 96% rating (4 stars) from Charity Navigator.
ShareBaby
sharebaby.org – Baltimore, MD
Organizational Mission
ShareBaby seeks to address the unmet basic needs of Baltimore’s most vulnerable young children through the distribution of diapers and other essential items. ShareBaby is taking action every day to combat diaper need and material insecurity-helping to reduce stress, depression, and barriers to work for families and helping to reduce severe diaper rash, infection, and anxiety in the lives of the babies we serve.
- Receives an 80% rating (3 stars) from Charity Navigator.
4MyCiTy
4mycity.us – Baltimore, MD
Organizational Mission
4MyCiTy focuses on the importance of environmental sustainability, primarily through the sustainable management of food to reduce organic waste. Their programs not only limit the harmful effects caused by organic waste on our environment but also enhance food security for families within the communities we serve.
- Receives a 93% rating (4 stars) from Charity Navigator.
Ocean Conservancy
Organizational Mission
Founded in 1972, Ocean Conservancy promotes healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems and opposes practices that threaten ocean life and human life. Through research, education, and science-based advocacy, Ocean Conservancy informs, inspires, and empowers people to speak and act on behalf of the oceans. Ocean Conservancy's four strategic priorities reflect the critical ocean conservation issues that will be the main focus of their efforts, including restoring sustainable American fisheries, protecting wildlife from human impacts, conserving special ocean places, and reforming government for better ocean stewardship.
- Receives a 99% rating (4 stars) from Charity Navigator.
International Rescue Committee
Organizational Mission
The International Rescue Committee responds to the world's worst humanitarian crises, including the conflict in Ukraine and the crisis in Afghanistan. They help to restore health, safety, education, economic wellbeing and people to people devastated by conflict and disaster. The IRC works in more than 40 countries and 28 U.S. cities.
- Receives a 96% rating (4 stars) from Charity Navigator.