Jennifer finishes first!
Thanks to all the Etsy for Animals people who stopped by yesterday! They are a very friendly bunch, and I’ve had a lot of fun looking at their Etsy shops and seeing all the great things they do. One member even introduced me to a new cat (exotic cats!) sanctuary, Cedarhill Sanctuary and told me that Etsy for Animals raises hundreds of dollars a month. Wow! 
Project Status!
I told you my mother-in-law’s making afghans for the Share A Square, too, right? So Jennifer’s now finished her first blanket (#85 in the gallery) and is starting on a second. I feel somehow behind. Better get cracking on that blanket a bit more, eh? Sloooow Miriam!
Funny thing is, almost all her squares are different than the ones I received. You know what that means? Just think of how many different squares Shelly received from how many people to make so many unique blankets! She says she’s received over 8000 squares, as far as I know, probably many more by now!
Crafting for Charity: Etsy for Animals
After I did last week’s on Etsy for Charity, one of the organizers dropped me a line and suggested some more possibilities for me. So cool!
Etsy For Animals: Artists helping Animals
Just what it sounds, this week’s charity feature is a group of Etsy sellers who donate to animal charities. EFA chooses a monthly charity to support. In February they focused on the Redwings Horse Sanctuary in the UK. In March they’re supporting the Visakha SPCA Cow Sanctuary.
How does it work?
Well, members donate items to the shop. 100% of the proceeds from the items in the shop benefit the monthly animal charity. Simple! Perhaps you’d be interested in 3 fantastic kissing cows cards? A lovely charm-and-button bracelet? The cutest dog in the cutest floral dog sweater ever? They’ve got it!!
But there’s more:
Many of the members of Etsy for Animals sell things in their own shops that benefit animals too - each one is different, and chooses their own benefits - including vegan and vegetarian folks, or just plain people who love animals. Nice leads to people who care, though.
Links to know:
- Etsy For Animals main website, including links to the monthly charity, the membership list and the list of charities they support.
- Etsy for Animals Shop - 100% to the animals!
Busy Woman:
Thought I’d also note that both Etsy for Animals and Etsy for Charity share a generous and apparently tireless organizer, Michele of the mvegan5 Etsy shop. 10% of her sales go to the Etsy for Animals charity of the month.
Crafting for Charity: Etsy for Charity Folks
I can’t say it enough, but there are really a lot of people out there interested in doing for others in a creative and otherwise generous fashion. Which is great! For example:
In January I posted about the Etsy for Charity folks, a street team that supports a variety of charities, chosen monthly. What I didn’t know (I should really do a Google search on things before hitting post) is that they have their very own social network through Ning. The Etsy for Charity Social Network has 67 members participating right now, and is of course connected to the Etsy shop that does the actual donations.What a great way to form community with people who are like-minded!
What does this social site offer? Well,
- you can get Etsy for Charity badges for your site like the one above and promote their work,
- you can get more information about their charity of the month (in February it’s Farm Sanctuary and Make It Right in New Orleans, and March will be Sightsavers International). Also see their Charity of the Month blog! aaand,
- you can link to their blog, which talks about what they’re doing and features some of the group memers, and also!
- you can get to know the people who donate their wares or link to the gallery of members. You can also get to know the folks that support these charity-minded folks.
I saw some familiar faces there - for example, Etsy for Animals is an advertiser. In fact, one of the organizers of Etsy for Charity runs Etsy for Animals!
I got to know some new folks there, like this Etsy shop called Creations4Causes. This shop is made up of a family of artists who donate 15% of their proceeds to rotating charities. They are a very active part of this network, and also do some of the posting to the Etsy for Charity blog, such as featuring members.
More new folks and connections: the Etsy for Charity network is run by Caged Bird Sings, with her coworkers/helpers- UniqueGrabs and Mvegan5 (who also runs Etsy for Animals).
