Still looking for ideas? Habitat for Humanity in Charlotte, North Carolina, is offering to send your sweetheart a beautiful card with a donation given in his or her name. You can still order them here! Can you believe that you both can get fresh roses just for donating blood? American Red Cross is holding a promotion to trade clean blood for red roses – your blood can save the lives of women and children… find out more here. If all else fails, and you don’t think your Valentine will dig the top 7 donation ideas listed in this article, you can buy a Good Card here, and your sweetheart will be able to donate to the charity of his or her choice. Happy St. Valentine’s Day!

Caughing up the thick white dust of the displaced drywall sheets, the Mercedes team did not fail to impress at the Sunday event this January. Word of advice to volunteers planning to come out to similar events: bring goggles! (and I would also suggest some sort of facemask or kerchief, as the fine dust tends to be a strong eye, nose, and throat irritant). As far as safety, almost everyone was working with incredibly sharp knives (for cutting the drywall), and I advise extreme caution to future volunteers. In the end, everybody had a blast, and can’t wait to come back!

I can’t believe how far Joe’s house has progressed. I remember just a week ago it looked like a mass of concrete and sticks! I would like to take a moment to thank Wachovia’s Ben and Carolyn for staying with us until the (very bitter) cold end of the day – your dedication to this cause is admirable, and I am glad that we got a chance to meet this December. No matter what type you use, ultimately, siding is a highly visible product (no surprise here), and it has a tendency to fail regularly. All siding products have inherent weaknesses, and if the materials haven’t been installed and maintained properly, Habitat homeowners can expect trouble very soon. Please take a moment…

What I noticed about volunteers who come to work here, is that no matter who they represent, or how skillful they are in construction, they immediately “take ownership” of this home. It’s a beautiful thing when a complete stranger walks into the house and strikes up a friendly argument about using screws in the drywall instead of nails (not that we disagree with your suggestion, but imagine 20 volunteers with automatic screwdrivers – I don’t think this is under the Habitat budget or insurance coverage). I can’t help but feel pride and joy, much like 100s of volunteers who have helped with the house since day 1 framing. Still confused about power tools? Become a better volunteer…

“We crossed our target of training 400 new health activists in 2009 by November. Over 1,000 women have attended training sessions in 2009 and 412 have been designated as health activists” – Dr. Shiban Ganju. There is no reason for a woman to have to bury 7 children in her lifetime; there is no reason for a boy to lose his mother to infection that could have been easily prevented with proper hygiene. Please visit Save-A-Mother.org for more information on how you can help increase (and eliminate!) maternal mortality rates in some of the most affected areas in the world.

If you’re Googling steps on how to start your own website, you’re probably already tearing out your hair over the plethora of outdated or confusing information that’s floating around out there, and you’re most likely ready to give up your hopes of ever running a successful non-profit .org or .net to save the unicorns, feed the frogs, or prevent nuclear winter; at this point, your eyes are bleeding, and you have the biggest urge to kill the internet. Don’t give up! There are ways to start your own website (without weird extensions, or a ton of flashing ads from your “sponsors”) that are fairly easy, though granted, you’ll have to put up some cash, and really commit to a long-term learning project.

“We’ll be able to get homeowners in em’ for half the cost, it’s a more effective use of our donor funds,” stated Burt Green, the executive director of Habitat Charlotte in reference to the unique non-new construction projects he has been spearheading. Habitat Critical Home Repair (HCHR) was launched in 2007 and serves economically disadvantaged homeowners in Charlotte, working intensively with families to conduct urgent home repairs. Volunteering this month is an exciting opportunity to learn more about Habitat and the different ways we serve families in need.