The Water Consciousness Bag raises awareness of water shortages in Northwest China.

Baking For Good combines charity with treats.

Freed up design staff creates an amazing collection of art for a good cause.

OneBigGame is altering the model for video game production by publishing games for charity.

This holiday season online retail giant eBay will be going analog – making the leap from the web to real-life with a pop-up shop set to open November 20th in New York City.

Coca-Cola had several fashion labels create limited-edition Coke Light bottles in an effort to raise money for victims of last year’s earthquake in Abruzzo, Italy.

Artists Justin Gignac and his lady Christine have another inspiring project in addition to NYC Garbage that we covered earlier. It’s called Wants for Sale and the idea is simply this: painting things they want and selling them for the actual cost of the item. The works range anywhere from $5.85 for a painting of Pinkberry to $2,500 for a painting of Betsey Johnson and Bloomingdales’ iconic Big Brown Bag to represent their desire for a shopping spree in SOHO.
They’ve now expanded on the original idea to give back to those less fortunate, with Needs for Sale. This time they’re painting items such [...]

In an effort to build on the micro-finance model of giving popularized by Kiva, new non-profit organization Jolkona – a Bengali word meaning “drop of water” – has incorporated elements of social media – community, connectivity and sharing – into their design, a move it hopes will appeal to a younger generation of philanthropists. On the surface, the system is far from new – pick a project and give money (as little as $5) – but where most donations end, with you feeling a temporary wave of good will, Jolkona wants to continue the story and make the process more [...]

The Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation, at the forefront of philanthropy toward the benefit of spinal injury research, is facing an image problem, as their namesake founders no longer carry the same cultural currency with an increasingly younger crowd interested in good causes.
To combat the threat, though still on the horizon, of diminished generational relevance for an affliction that pays no attention to generational boundaries, the Reeve Foundation is aiming to convert itself from a face to a mission; the cause itself must take precedence over the famous name attached to it. Hoping to boost awareness accordingly, the foundation is [...]

Design and bike enthusiasts take notice! Iconic artists Shepard Fairey and Kenny Scharf have teamed up with TREK for a series of  supertouch curated art bikes to be ridden by Lance Armstrong in his first ever appearance at the Giro d’Italia, the world’s second most prestigious bike race (after the Tour de France, of course). The bikes are also part of Fairey and Scharfs efforts to bring attention to Lance’s upcoming STAGES art show benefiting Armstrongs anti-cancer charity Livestrong.
While fairey’s cycle (above) is inspired by Lance’s charity work and includes delicate patterns taken from Italy’s architectural and artistic heritage, Scharf’s [...]

If you still have the disposable income to buy Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent and Stella McCartney, you might also want to buy a plane ticket to Paris and visit a new store in the Marais called Merci. The shop is the brainchild of high-end childrenswear designers Bonpoint, who decided to use their fashion industry muscles to do a little good in the world. They’ve stocked their store with custom pieces by some of the world’s most coveted designers, donating 100% of the profit to a children’s cause in Madagascar (does anyone know which one? Would love a link).
We love to [...]

Artist Shepard Fairey has contributed to a new campaign from Lance Armstrong’s charity Livestrong. Armstrong’s ‘Livestrong: Hope Rides Again’ graphics announce “Defiance”, “Courage”, “Action” on the buildings in LA.

More details at LAist here.
[Imgs via iamrob and Wildbell]

In another sign that people are looking for alternative ways to consume and reuse, we were staggered to learn that the Brooklyn branch of the Housing Works Thrift Shop brought in $1 million in sales during 2008. And while these numbers are on par with their other Manhattan stores, as other area retailers are seeing decreased sales, this shop is actually seeing a jump in numbers.
The Housing Works model is noteworthy for a number of reasons. Their overarching social mission - to provide care for people with HIV and AIDS (they have largest community-based program in the United States) through a range [...]

The 2009 Good50×70 competition is now officially underway, encouraging anyone with the creative impetus to submit their self-made posters in support of seven charitable organizations for a chance to represent their causes on a global scale. The topics for this year’s competition are: Child Labour, Climate Change, Healthcare Deprivation, HIV/AIDS, Nuclear Emergency, War on Terror and Women’s Rights Deprivation.
Good50×70 is working with Amref, Amnesty, Emergency, Greenpeace, Lila, Unicef and WWF, whose specific briefs can be seen here. Participants can choose one or more cause, create their poster(s), and upload them into the Good 50×70 database for judging from March 1-April [...]

Jake Kloberdanz, CEO of Hope Wine, has taken the idea of “cause branding” where for-profit corporations partner with non-profit organizations to release limited edition products and services to raise money for charities and created a company around it. Realizing that these short term relationships were beneficial for everyone involved – corporations could promote themselves as socially conscious while simultaneously bolstering sales, non-profits received much needed funding and customers could make purchases they felt good about – Kloberdanz didn’t see any reason these same ideals couldn’t function as a sustainable business model year round. Launched in early 2007, the Southern California based company currently [...]