Celebrate Giving Tuesday with World Vision and Thirty-One Gifts {Zip-Top Organizing Utility Tote Giveaway!}

Another Black Friday has come and gone and, as with every year, I cringed watching the news and seeing the videos of crazed consumers fighting over toys and (literally) throwing others out of the way to try to grab a television.

Even though holiday decorations have been appearing in stores for weeks, for many Black Friday (and today, Cyber Monday) are the official kickoff into the season. The shopping! The spending! Buy, buy, buy!

But... please, folks. In this season of family and generosity (and retail frenzy), don't forget take a step back from the commercial craziness and focus on something even more important: giving. No reason is ever needed, but the perfect one is here tomorrow as it is Giving Tuesday!

This year, to celebrate the 4th annual Giving Tuesday, it is easy to do just that and feel good about your choices as World Vision partners with Thirty-One Gifts to help charitable donations make twice the impact.

Since it began in 1996, the World Vision Gift Catalog has grown in popularity as a gift-giving alternative; featuring over 100 ways to improve the lives of children through gifts such as: clean water, food, medicine, education, job training and small business loans, among others. Gifts range in price from $10 to $39,000 and can be made in a loved one's name.  Last year alone hundreds of thousands of people were helped through.

If you've never browsed this wonderful catalog, then just know that you'll find more than 250 items that are available to help improve quality of life for women, children and families in the U.S. and around the world. If money is tight, there are more than 30 gifts in the catalog that sell for $35 or less, including items like chickens, job training or school supplies.

While I have long been familiar with the way that World Vision makes it possible to make an important charitable donation while still giving a meaningful, amazing gift, I did not realize the correlation that the company has with Thirty-One Gifts.

Thirty-One Gifts was founded on the principle of helping women — they are passionate about empowering women through their direct-selling business — but is also known for their charitable heart. In 2012 they founded a philanthropic initiative called Thirty-One Gives and to-date has donated more than $80 million in cash and products to nonprofit organizations that empower women and girls and support families.

This year, Thirty-One Gifts is continuing that generosity on Giving Tuesday, as every donation made by phone or online to World Vision will be matched by Thirty-One Gifts with a donation of one of their products, such as a tote bag or blanket, up to a total of $1 million worth of products for women and girls in need around the world.

This beautiful Zip-Top Organizing Utility Tote from Thirty-One Gifts is not only stylish, practical and extremely versatile (and has an uplifting message inside), but is one that has been recently been distributed to volunteers in Burundi who use the totes to carry materials for educating families about malnutrition.

Before receiving the totes, volunteers like Renathe Kabageni (pictured below and at top), a volunteer who works to combat malnutrition occurring in children in her community, carried all of their materials and equipment by hand. Now, the simple gift of this tote bag is helping to preserve her teaching materials and make it easier to teach parents how to feed their children nutritious foods.

How incredible that the partnership between these two companies results in such great benefits for communities in need and that women like Renathe are able to continue the important education they are providing!

If you have always wanted to encourage the spirit of giving in your family and show the importance of giving back, there couldn't be a better time than now. You'll not only be seizing the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of women like Renathe (as well as their families and communities), but your donation made tomorrow will be matched by Thirty-One Gifts and will make twice the difference!

To find out more about the World Vision Gift Catalog and to place an order, visit WorldVisionGifts.com or call 855-WV-GIFTS. You can also connect with this incredible company on Facebook and Twitter. Be sure to also check out ThirtyOneGifts.com (specifically their Thirty-One Gives line) for more about this inspiring company as well as finding them on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram.

Plus, thanks to the never-ending generosity of these two companies, one person will be able to proudly share in the inspirational, life-changing ways of these organizations as well, because...

One lucky person will win a Thirty-One Gifts Zip-Top Organizing Utility Tote (ARV $35) WITH custom embroidery (ARV $7)! 

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A big thank you to World Vision and Thirty-One Gifts for providing a Zip-Top Organizing Utility Tote for me as well as for one lucky giveaway winner. The opinions shared are my own and honest and if you really need to see more, click here to see how I roll.