Forget the China pattern: the I Do Foundation helps couples create a charitable donation registry – Society
Sarah Wildman
Long before Canada s alluring new options for gay and lesbian weddings hit the headlines, Sheila Allen and Alex Volin decided to declare their commitment to each other in a ceremony on July 6.
The women wanted to ensure the event would launch the beginning of a life together based on giving. Yet, knowing their guests would want to give them something, they registered on the I Do Foundation’s Web site, which helps couples create an online charitable donation registry.
I Do is partnered with a number of retailers, including Target, Linens ‘n Things, and Nordstrom, all of which have promised to give a percentage of their proceeds to a charity of the couple’s choice. If couples decide, as Allen and Volin did, to forgo gifts entirely, they can set up a donation registry directly with a nonprofit. Under its social justice category, I Do features the Human Rights Campaign and Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund.
“It was very important to provide services to [straight and gay] couples,” says I Do cofounder Bethany Robertson. Same-sex couples actually are “more active than some of our other couples and more committed to the idea [of charitable giving],” she adds.
Robertson notes that several straight couples have selected Lambda because “even though they are in relationships that are legally recognized, they wanted to support an organization that would support the rights of others to have the stone rights.”
Find a link In the I Do Foundation at www.advocate.com
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