Diane Mastrull: A new website links givers and charities

Like many people the day after Thanksgiving, Blair Souder wasn't feeling well. But his distress wasn't related to overeating.

It was from watching television footage of bargain-hungry buyers on Black Friday, the launch of the Christmas shopping season.

"People are fighting each other for DVD players at Target," the 48-year-old Chester County father of two recalled of that scene last November.

It was a disturbing contrast to the few weeks he had just spent in Nepal, where he had done some hiking and had become enthralled with the simple, peaceful existence of the Sherpa people.

"It just really struck me that all this stuff that we think we need or that we think we need to give . . . has really nothing to do with how happy and peaceful we can feel," said Souder, a former General Electric Co. marketing executive with degrees in chemical engineering, business administration, and psychology.

That realization has led to Souder's forming a Web-based business with a brother in California, Kirk, that Souder hopes will "create a new vernacular for how we celebrate things."

ShiftMyGift.com launched last Monday, offering people a way to celebrate any occasion - birthday, baby shower, wedding, graduation, new home, the sun rising - by rerouting money that would have been spent on gifts to needy causes. So, for instance, instead of buying your husband an iPad, you visit his registry page on ShiftMyGift.com and make a donation in his name to any of the nonprofit groups he has listed there as his preferences.

Among the motivational reasons the site offers for donations instead of gifts:

"Your friends don't have to slog through the malls finding you stuff you don't want. Your friends get a tax deduction. The environment loves you for not using gas, packaging, and wrapping paper."

Souder says his site is different from donation sites such as Facebook's Causes in that ShiftMyGift does not raise money. Rather, it aims to serve as a simple-to-use digital link between donors and organizations that rely on charitable giving.

"I see it as a movement as much as I see it as a website," Souder said last week at his home office in Lincoln University, where he also runs a consulting business to help create more-engaging work environments.