At eco friendly retailer Patagonia, you can voice your choice. This is a new initiative that allows you as a customer to tell Patagonia what local environmental groups to support with a $4,000 grant they are giving away.

Patagonia has the Voice Your Choice campaign in all its US based stores (except Boulder), and voting takes place in the stores. What are you voting for? Each Patagonia store has a $4,000 grant they are giving away to a local environmental group. Which local group gets the grant, is what YOU decide.

Voting ends July 19th, and winners are announced in early August. To find out more on which local groups are in the running for the $4,000 grant, head to the Patagonia store locator.

On the latest issue of the Small Business Edition of Business Week, a series of entreprenuers were profiled known as antipreneurs.

These small business owners are anti-big and anti-TRADITIONAL advertisting. They aim to make a profit as any other business, just not at any cost. They value their customers, they value where they operate, and they value most of all, being socially responsible.

One of the businesses showcased is vegan shoe shop, Moo Shoes. They are small, women owned, based in New York, and market cruelty-free products (vegan shoes). Below is what they have to say about how they present their product. 

Antipreneurs do pay careful attention to how their products are presented. Moo Shoes, a $1.2 million New York vegan shoe store with five employees, has made its shop a community hub for information about the vegan lifestyle and about animal cruelty. This spring, Moo Shoes hosted Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, a national agency for stray and abused pets. Best Friends set up pens and cages in the store with about 20 homeless dogs and cats. Customers learned about the agency and the strays, and two cats were placed in city homes. “We care about animals, and getting animals homes is important to us, though not directly related to the shoes,” says Moo Shoes co-founder Sara Kubersky.

Moo Shoes have been written about here on Keetsa a gazilllion times, i love their stylish and funky designs. I love this type of company, those who successfully mix profit with compassion. Moo Shoes also tends to support smaller artists, as they give the sustainable shoemakers a venue to market their wares. In turn they too are able to meet the demand of animal lovers who prefer not wear leather and other animal-based materials.

How do they get the word out?

Moo Shoes places ads in vegetarian magazines (e.g. Vegetarian Times) and other non traditional media. As you can imagine they go where there customers tend to be located. They support animal organizations and preach the gospel of cruelty-free living.

They are well known (and respected) in the the community in which they serve, this is how they get the word out, and how they stay relevant.

Just about everyone has a cell phone these days, why not use it for good. With Sonopia you can do just that. 

Pronghorn - 2nd fastest land animal

Sonopia allows you to donate some money to charity every time you use your cell phone. Basically the way it works is when you sign up for service from a charity partner, money gets contributed to it. If you’re an animal lover or into conservation efforts, the National Wildlife Federation has their own page, among others.

Visit Sonopia to start on your journey towards virtual philantrophy.

The One Laptop Per Child initiative with its XO Laptop, is setting out to change the world one portable pc at a time.

XO Laptop

Till November 26th, the OLPC will give you one laptop, when you send one to a child in a developing country. So in essence they are having a BOGO sale. But participating in this offer enables you as a consumer to do some good with only $399 dollars. The laptop will enable children in developing countries to  learn valuable life-enhancing skills, to advance from poverty to self-suffiency, and beyond.

To learn more about the OLPC Project and the XO Laptop, visit Laptop Giving.org.