If you are considering gifts for this holiday season or anytime, here are a few recent picks in CD’s, Books, and Giving.

Top Five CD’s

1. Song Sourcing is a brilliant idea executed beautifully by singer-songwriter Michael Stillwater. In this just released 2 CD package, you’ll find 30 folk, jazz and rock tracks of Michael’s great guitar chords along with some percussion but without vocals. That’s where you or your gift recipient come in. Listening to the tracks, let yourself dive into the music and allow the music to become you.  Then explore what musical or lyrical ideas are inspired and let them out.  In this virtual duet (between you and the music, or together with a partner, family or friends), listeners can explore what’s awaiting release and expression, perhaps some of it for years. Think of Song Sourcing as a musical possibility catalyst. This beautifully packaged CD set is a unique gift to singers and non-singers alike. You can download a free sample here. To listen to more sample tracks and order, visit the Song Sourcing site now.

2. NOW HERE: Maesyn I first met Maesyn at The Inn of the Seventh Ray in Topanga, CA about a year ago. She gave me her CD for review and I placed it on my rather large listening pile. It was not until I began preparing for this blog that I had the opportunity to listen. I was delighted by Maesyn’s musicality, intelligent lyrics and great rhythms. Here in her own poetic words is a description of her music, “…an amalgamation of funky grooves, sultry passionate vocals, orchestral musicality, sophisticated lyricism and inspirational esotericism….best known for her improvisational spontaneity, lush resonant vocals, playfully passionate violin and exotic full body shakti”. Her musical influences are The Beatles, Bob Dylan and Paul Simon. My favorite tracks are Long Division, rap in a great odd time signature and Break Free’s empowering advice. Check out Maesyn’s exciting music at her My Space site.

3. Emergence 2012, Alex Theory and Daniel Pinchbeck In their musical collaboration, sound healing visionary Alex Theory and best selling author, Daniel Pinchbeck have woven a sound tapestry of mind-bending music that infuses psychoacoustic rhythms with the chants of ayahuasca shamans and natural harmonics found deep within the forests of South America. The result is a sacred journey through an aural landscape that is mysterious, haunting, and expansive. Definitely great background music for parties or lovemaking. You can also pick up a copy of Daniel’s book, 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, put on this music, and enjoy the perfect soundtrack

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4. Sangria, Mariah Parker If you like the Indian, Latin/Flemenco and Jazz genres, you’ll enjoy drinking in the melodies and rhythms of Sangria. The musical flavors served up on this world fusion CD include tabla, santur, cello, bansuri, English horn, flute and timbales. Mariah’s compelling original music features some great musicians including Matthew Monfort on scalloped fretboard guitar, Kash Killion on bass, cello and sangri and Paul McCandless on soprano sax and English horn. A great addition to your world music collection.

5, Seven Serenades for Scalloped Fretboard Guitar, Matthew Montfort In addition to playing on Mariah Parkers CD above, Matthew is the leader of one of my favorite bands, Ancient Future. Since 1978, he has studied and mastered his unique instrument that features a board with no wood between the frets. The result is that his fingers only touch the strings producing a very clean sound more like a sitar.  In this solo outing, he provides the listener with a wonderful selection of ragas that show off his mastery and most interesting compositions. If you enjoy solo guitar with a twist, Seven Serenades is definitely worth a listen. You can check out more of Matthew’s music as well as Ancient Future at Ancient-Future.com

Top Five Books

1. The Value of Values by Ed Gagnon. What if we lived in a values driven world where Integrity, Respect for Life, Courageousness, Purposefulness and Generosity were the norm? Is it possible? Ed believes it is and that that world will be brought on by the parents of today’s children if they read and apply his practical methods for empowering their kids to live values driven lives. Why has he chosen to write about values? “I have chosen to have a purpose. I have come to realize that the meaning of life is to create a life of meaning, to leave a legacy rich in values to which I have been true. I may not be able to control life, aging, and death. But I can control what I do while I am alive. This legacy I choose to leave behind will be something my children will also be able to leave behind. The values I choose to live by will be the sustenance for my family’s happiness for generations to come”. If you feel the same way, have a child and want to help them find their purpose and live from a set of  guiding values you and they can be proud of, this book may help you in that process. To learn more, click here.

2. The Farmacist Desk Reference by Don Tolman is an indispensable 1600 page two volume encyclopedia of diseases and the vegetables, fruits and herbs that have proven effective against them. An essential part of the New Paradigm is Self Care and no set of books I know of will supply you with this collection’s level of valuable and potentially life-saving information. To learn more, visit author Don Tolman’s site and enjoy his video. He is offering a free gift of his 2 hour presentation on his basic elements of optimal health with the purchase of each set.

3.  There’s No Business Like Soul Business by Derek Rydall As we approach 2012, the end of the Mayan Calendar, it is not as some Hollywood films portray, the end of the world or doomsday. Much more, it is the end of an outdated paradigm promoting greed and fear. It is the small beginnings of a spiritual approach to life and work. And it is long overdue. There’s No Business Like Soul Business, applies this shift to the entertainment industry. It is an approach to merge life and work with helpful exercises to build the way. As a writer of consciousness-raising films in Hollywood, I applaud this manual and hope for more that are intent on writing and selling their scripts without selling their souls. To learn more, visit Derek’s great site.

1. The DO Unbuntu Bracelet is crafted by women living with AIDS in South Africa’s Eastern Cape — one of the country’s poorest regions with an unemployment rate of 70%. The Unbuntu Bracelet campaign has given this community an opportunity to generate a sustainable income. The income will help these women care for themselves and their children, preventing more orphans. This campaign was started by Louise Hogarth whose documentary, Angels in the Dust, tells the story of these mothers and children in need and a well to do white couple who gave up their comfortable lifestyle to create an orphanage and school for the children. You can order one or more bracelets and learn more about the documentary at www.doactnow.org

2. Fasting.com is the home of the best designed fasting program I’ve found and as a gift, this could be one of the more unusual, but also one of the best since it directly contributes to health. At one point in my life I inhaled some toxic fumes from a cleaning fluid that produced some growths in my bladder. My doctor who was the head of Urology at UCLA told me I would need to have a series of operations to remove these growths and that they would probably return again and again. I had two of the painful procedures and decided there had to be a better solution. I fasted for 70 days with Fastmaster, Dennis Paulson, and then waited two years to return for a test and sure enough, no growths. So I am a believer. You can check out his proven program which has helped thousands around the world with no hunger or loss of energy.

3. Kiva.com is an extraordinary online nexus of entrepreneurs with ideas that support their local communities and families and compassionate lenders who want to use a small portion of their charitable giving funds to support others. A lender simply reviews the listings of worthy individuals and decides to lend one or more people a fixed amount. That loan is repaid and the money can then be lent again. As of November, Kiva has facilitated over $100 million in micro loans. You can give to the individuals or give a gift certificate to others so that they can give compliments of you. How cool is that!

4. The Power of Giving: How Giving Back Enriches Us All by Azim Jamal & Harvey McKinnon could have been listed in the book section but I feel its an valuable catalyst that promotes giving and thought it best to place it in this section. The Power of Giving is a practical and visionary guide in which you’ll discover the more you give, the more you have. Simple and easy to use, The Power of Giving provides a wealth of down-to-earth ideas, exercises, and real-life stories that reveal to each reader the unique gifts he or she has to give-including kindness, ideas, advice, attention, hope, and more-and the many ways you can benefit from giving them, from better health to better job prospects.

5. The Gift of Giving is a one-stop website featuring hundreds of organizations you can give to across many categories including animals, arts, celebrity charities, children, disabled, education, the environment, hunger, service and women’s causes.

Giving is slowly replacing greed for more and more people. “Helpers High” is a feeling of elation and joy when contributing to others happiness. In a synchronistic moment, I received two e-mails within the last 24 hours that relate to giving and want to share them with you. The first is from Daily Good and explores the gift economy of Mali. The second explores a hot book on giving.

Gifts are the link with your neighbors, your parents, your relatives. If you can’t keep that link, you are not a human being. –Djingarey Maiga

Inspiration of the Day:
Sometimes, we get the most from giving without receiving. In Mali, villagers have embraced this idea for centuries in their vibrant gift economy, called ‘dama’. It encourages Malians to maintain social connections with family, friends, and complete strangers, by providing goods and services with no expectation of a return gift. Instead, the villagers understand that a gift will be “paid forward,” and that the individual sacrifice will make the community as a whole stronger and better connected. In a nation where the government provides minimal services, Mali’s dama protects the poor and the sick, helping those ignored by a traditional economy. Read more about the success of this gift economy. [ more ]

Be The Change:
Give a gift to a stranger without expecting anything in return.

In case you haven’t had an opportunity to read our review of The Power of Giving, here’s an update on its progress.

The paperback edition of “The Power of Giving: How Giving Back Enriches Us All” is currently #167 at Barnes & Noble, climbing from 122,000 yesterday!. Wayne Dyer calls it: “Very inspiring!”. Jack Canfield says “Give it to everyone you love!”. Seth Godin believes that: “This book could change everything!”. 

The Power of Giving is a practical and visionary guide in which you’ll discover the more you give, the more you have. Simple and easy to use, The Power of Giving provides a wealth of down-to-earth ideas, exercises, and real-life stories that reveal to each reader the unique gifts he or she has to give-including kindness, ideas, advice, attention, hope, and more-and the many ways you can benefit from giving them, from better health to better job prospects.

“The Power of Giving” won the Nautilus Gold Award in May 2009 at the largest book convention in New York and has been translated into 9 languages Previous recipients of the award include His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra and Eckhart Tolle.

Your purchase is 100% guaranteed by the authors, Harvey McKinnon and Azim Jamal. If you’re not delighted by its content, you can send your book to them and receive a check for your purchase price. Not many books come with a money back guarantee and, to date, they have not had a single copy returned.

Please consider purchasing a copy today for yourself or as a gift for someone you know will appreciate it, anyone you may feel needs to learn how to become a more giving person and your Congressperson or Senator. When you buy “The Power of Giving: How Giving Back Enriches Us All!”, you’ll immediately start your giving because 100% of author royalties go to charities and, as a thank you for your giving, you’ll receive dozens of downloadable gifts donated to the campaign.

Please join me in purchasing a copy or multiple copies now by clicking here: http://tinyurl.com/ylrhzlv Buying the book and telling your friends and associates about it, will contribute to the books accelerating sales, hopefully making The Power of Giving a #1 bestseller in the next few days. It would be a great thing to see giving achieve the top spot at Barnes and Noble. After you buy the book, whether online or in a bookstore, return to their site and choose the kind of charity you’d like the royalties to go to.

Author Biographies

Harvey McKinnon is the founder of Harvey McKinnon Associates, a consultancy specializing in fundraising, relationship building, and direct response for the nonprofit community. With offices in Vancouver and Toronto, the firm offers services to clients internationally.

“HMA’s mission is to increase the income and stability of our nonprofit clients by building donor loyalty. We believe our work can make a difference in the world, and we use our skills in raising money to help nonprofit organizations accomplish their missions.”

Azim Jamal is an inspirational speaker who has delivered talks on five continents, as well as the author of several books on spirituality and life balance. A former professional accountant, Jamal decided to devote himself to giving after a life-changing experience volunteering in the developing world.

by Pilar Stella

Change always comes bearing gifts. ~Price Pritchett

Here is a blog that I sent out in my newsletter today – you can sign up to receive it regularly at www.onegiving.com! It is the latest news on e-giving from the month of September! Enjoy and happy reading!

The first thing that struck me this month was how much is happening with giving! My favorite was an article in Time Magazine about the Responsibility Revolution (http://bit.ly/3oyk1g). This article was a huge marker for us at OneGiving™ to let us know that, indeed, we are on the right path! Basically, the article talked about the fact that we are going through a Renaissance of sorts in which the American Consumer is becoming an Ethical Consumer and as a result, corporations are adapting their business practices away from a simple profit based model and towards a triple bottom line – impacting people, profit and the planet! This is great news for OneGiving™ as this is one of the core tenants of why we are creating OneGiving™ – to move the dial forward for businesses, consumers, nonprofits and others to become more evolved in their giving, business practices and impacts on people and the planet! Enjoy the article and the other valuable resources below!

Politics & Giving
Day of Service and Remembrance: President Obama declared September 11 a National Day of Service and Remembrance. This followed in a series of the administration’s commitment to service starting with the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, signed into law last Spring and followed by the Summer of Service – “United We Serve” campaign. http://bit.ly/16VqXg The administration encouraged people to stay involved in service throughout the year by logging volunteer activities at: http://www.911dayofservice.org/.

Corporate Giving
A New Age in Corporate Giving: A new report by LBG Research Institute found that corporate giving is changing given budget cuts and the new economy. In a survey of over 100 U.S. corporations and foundation, the report found that corporations are encouraging a shift from cash based donations to increased employee volunteer time (84%), in-kind donations (15%; e.g., office space, equipment, etc.), product donations (12%) and new strategic alliances to better align with business strategy and goals (over 50%). http://bit.ly/6OsZY

Nonprofits & Giving
Nonprofits in the Social Media Age: This is a terrific article that talks about the old model of nonprofit engagement that is a very linear and outbound model, with an organization broadcasting out to its members. Rather in the age of social media, nonprofits have to have more lateral lines of communication back and forth, much like was done in the Obama campaign and utilizing external chats, meet ups and other to fuel the talk, hype and energy focus on a nonprofit..http://bit.ly/MAe2t

Nonprofit Starvation Cycle: An article by the Stanford Social Innovation Review talks about the vicious cycle of nonprofit underfunding that starts with funders’ unrealistic expectations, the nonprofits adapt to the pressure from funders, the nonprofits spend less on overhead or underrepresent reporting expenditures, which continues the cycle of funders’ unrealistic expectations. The article highlights some of the ways to break the cycle, starting with adjusting funders’ unrealistic expectations. http://bit.ly/1anMWl

Social Media & Giving
Social Media and Executives: Good research from emarketer about the value that US executives find in Social media. More than eight in 10 management, marketing and HR executives responding to a July 2009 survey reported using social media most for brand-building, followed by networking, customer service, and various research- and information-related activities. http://bit.ly/2L6RMm

Creating an Online Community: A great blog about creating an online community for social networks, nonprofits and more. Tips include: Listen!; create bite size content; provoke conversations; signpost the way; ensure good commenting; reward active members; don’t be the bottleneck; and simplify! http://bit.ly/15O7Bk

Mobile Giving
Mobile Giving is catching on: Because most of the $300 billion a year in charitable giving in the U.S. comes from individuals, Jim Manis, chief executive of the Mobile Giving Foundation, saw mobile giving as a way to reach a new demographic. He could increase the pool of charitable donors by capitalizing on the popularity of text messaging, which is used by almost 70 percent of people aged 18 to 24. http://bit.ly/121EaO

Giving Resources
20 Funder Networks That Tweet: http://bit.ly/4z8dlv & 90 Foundations That Tweet: http://bit.ly/1l7bdR

e-Cards that Give: A site that has ecards from Care2 that generate donations as well as send greetings! http://bit.ly/QEUFx

Giving Measurement & Outcomes
Measuring the Social Impact of ‘Mission Investments’: Much like the long-running debate in the nonprofit world about how to measure a charity’s performance, a movement is under way to figure out how to evaluate whether investments that seek both financial and social returns are making a difference. The absence of common standards means that investors can’t compare the social and environmental benefits of different investment opportunities, said Antony Bugg-Levine, a managing director at the Rockefeller Foundation. Even measures as simple as the number of jobs created through an investment might be counted differently from one social-investment fund to another. http://bit.ly/17Oycw

GOOD – Metrics the beat at the heart of philanthropy: Great article about what it means to design and implement evaluations in ways that honor the voices and lived experiences of those who are participants or recipients of the services, programs, and policies the field supports and funds. http://bit.ly/16xbWQ

You can find me on Twitter @pilarstella and Facebook at www.facebook.com/pilarstella.

From Ode Magazine

Bestselling author Dave Eggers believes helping young people learn to express themselves can make all the difference in the world.

Marco Visscher | June/July 2009 issue

Dave Eggers

Photo: McSweeney’s

Halfway through our interview, Dave Eggers jumps up from the sofa, flips open his laptop, which is buried under a pile of magazines and newspapers, and retrieves an email from Valentino Achak Deng, the Sudanese refugee whose harrowing experiences during his country’s civil war and bizarre entry into the U.S. were chronicled by Eggers in What Is the What. The proceeds from that book, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in 2006, go to Deng’s foundation , which is helping reconstruct Sudan. The email contains photos showing what has been done so far with the money: pictures of a recently opened school building in Marial Bai, Deng’s native village. “Isn’t it beautiful?” Eggers says.

Call it “trickle-down eggersnomics”—ever since his immensely successful 2000 debut, A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, Eggers has used his royalties to help others. He devoted some of that money to 826 Valencia, which helps children in poor neighborhoods of San Francisco with their writing skills and homework. Meanwhile, he runs McSweeney’s, a publishing house that offers a platform for unknown writers and brings out a series of books in which those on the margins of society—such as prisoners and undocumented immigrants—get the chance to tell their stories. Eggers is using his Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) Prize—a $100,000 award given by the TED arts and ideas conference that grants the recipient “one wish to change the world”—to inspire people to put time and energy into helping inner city kids in public schools. “You do what you can,” Eggers says.

Cover of a book on Giving Kids

The very rich and the very famous capture the headlines for their charitable giving. But another group of avid philanthropists is also leaving its mark. Young people from grade school on are engaged as never before in making a direct difference in the world. They are donating via the Internet to favorite projects overseas, creating their own nonprofits to pursue social causes, and becoming grantmakers on foundation boards to foster change in their home communities. Some youths have gained that awareness from volunteer activities. Many have seen celebrities take up worthy causes. Others have traveled with their families and encountered the challenges many children face in other countries. This article from the Christian Science Monitor shares more