Weekly Charity: Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial

More than 45 years ago, Martin Luther King Jr. told us about his dream. On Tuesday, part of that dream will be realized with the inauguration of Barack Obama as the nation's 44th president.

But Obama would be the first to say that his election is but another step in the journey. Indeed, as time has gone on, that journey has become both more complex and more inclusive. Dr. King's work was not only focused on African-American rights, but civil rights for all people. He also championed victims of economic inequality as well.

So as long as there's injustice, there's a need to remember the efforts to fight it. The Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial in Washington, D.C., will do just that. This new memorial, to be located on the National Mall, will be left intentionally incomplete, so that victims of injustice and champions of equality can be memorialized in the future.

There's a lot to celebrate this week, and in the midst of celebrating where we are, it's good to remember where we came from. So click here to learn more about the memorial, and click here to donate $5 or more. In thanks for your donation, you'll receive a "Build the Dream" wristband and lapel pin. You can also download a search toolbar to support the memorial; for every search you make using the toolbar, the memorial gets another five cents.

Have a great holiday weekend, and good luck to our new president!

Weekly Charity: One Laptop Per Child

We're starting to see news articles about charities having to cut back due to the recession -- most recently it's been the One Laptop Per Child program, which, according to The Associated Press, has cut its staff in half.

The program is a good one, and deserves support. One Laptop Per Child provides low-cost, rugged laptop computers to children around the world who need them most. This gives kids in poor nations an opportunity to learn technology skills and link up with the broader world.

Right now, a laptop costs $199, though the group hopes to lower that to $100 in time. Thankfully, you can help by donating less that $199; perhaps if enough people donate $5 this week by clicking here, we'll have funded one more laptop that can bring one more child into a brighter future.

So check 'em out and give!

Five Dollar Heroes' first corporate partnership?

I got a pretty unusual e-mail during the holidays. A new hotel search site, HotelsCombined.com, offered to donate $20 to a charity of my choice if I mentioned them here on the blog.

Well...I admit, I'm not one for product placement or offering endorsements or anything like that. For one, my endorsement probably isn't worth the server space used to store it (roughly $0.000037 or thereabouts). And I'm a firm believer in letting folks make their own decisions about how they spend their time and money.

But it IS $20 to charity. So I ran a few searches on the HotelsCombined.com site, and it works pretty well in aggregating hotel prices from a bunch of other travel sites and finding cheap rates. Plus, you gotta give the company points for a creative and charitable way to market their new site.

So there you have it...Five Dollar Heroes' first corporate partnership. I'm going to ask 'em to throw that $20 at CARE, our weekly charity. And I'll go ahead and ask you to click on over to the HotelsCombined.com site and check it out.

As an added incentive, any readers who are Facebook users can "become a fan" of HotelsCombined.com and the company will throw another $5 at the charity of your choice. Check out the details of this offer here.

Weekly Charity: CARE

Both at home and abroad, poverty has been on the rise, and women continue to take the brunt of it, especially in rural areas and developing nations. CARE, which has been around since 1945, has focused on helping to lift women out of poverty, both here in the U.S. and around the world.

The nice thing about CARE is that while they help treat the symptions of poverty, such as providing food and shelter, they're primarily interested in stamping out poverty altogether by offering work programs, microloans, training and other long-term solutions.

This charity is a particularly good steward of donations -- all their financial information is right online here, and you can see that the bulk of donations go right to people who need help, instead of on mailings, hosting fundraisers, all that superfluous stuff.

So go ahead and check out what CARE does by clicking here, then go to their donation page and put down your $5 next to mine!

No excuses

Yes, it's been more than a month since I've last posted. Indeed, it's an entirely new year now. I could, of course, blame the end-of-year crunch at work, the holidays, vacation, whatever...but the fact of the matter is I didn't get it done. And I really do regret that.

So let's call this a 2009 resolution. I'm going to get back on top of this blog and do my best to update it at LEAST weekly. Apologies to all those who have followed this blog...I'll do better. After all, the coming year promises to be a difficult one for many both here and abroad, and charities are going to need our help more than ever.

As always, of course, if you have any suggestions for this blog, or worthy charities that you feel should be featured, please drop me a line at fivedollarheroes@gmail.com. Or if I slip up again and don't post, call me out on it!

Thanks for your patience with me and this blog. Happy New Year, all.

Suited for Change

The economy is bad, folks, and it's only going to get worse before it gets better. Low-income women, some of who may be either the primary family wage-earner or a single parent, are particularly vulnerable these days.

Suited for Change is an excellent charity in the Washington, D.C., area that helps these women obtain professional clothing and career counseling that can help them get and retain better-paying jobs. Clients come from a variety of disadvantaged backgrounds, and the charity "suits up" more than 100 women each month. Since 1992, the charity has helped 13,000 women transition to the workforce.

Yes, the right clothes and the right counsel can make all the difference. And so can we, especially when charities like Suited for Change will see more and more clients in the coming months. So check out their good work here, then click here to donate your five bucks. Together, maybe we can add one more woman to the workforce and help change a life.

If you're looking for a charity a little closer to your own home, check out The Women's Alliance, co-founded by the Suited for Change folks as an organization of charitable groups dedicated to helping low-income women gain employment.

More visitors...and props from a fellow blogger

Hello, everyone! Naturally, I join millions of bloggers across the globe when I say...I never get to blog as much as I'd like. But I'm still pretty good about getting that weekly charity up there, and I hope everyone is putting up their five bucks!

In the meantime, FDH (my new acronym for the blog!) had its 200th unique visitor over the weekend. That's over 200 in just three months which, given the number of offerings out there in the blogosphere, is pretty darn good. Thanks, of course, to the Blogger's Choice Awards and BlogCatalog for driving some traffic over here.

Also, the Five Dollar Heroes blog got an award! The owner of the Baby Bundles International blog has given FDH her "Gracious Givers Award." Normally, I wouldn't necessarily post about one blogger giving another blogger props, but in this case, I'm taking the opportunity to point out the good work that the Baby Bundles blog does.

Baby Bundles International is collecting diapers, bottles, formula, wipes, etc. to bundle up and donate to new parents who need a helping hand. Overall, a really noble effort. So head on over there and check out that blog, too. And if the spirit moves you, be a Gracious Giver and bundle up some baby stuff!