This week two fellow BlogHer Contributing Editors (Virgina DeBolt and Elana Centor), and BlogHer co-Founder (Elisa Camahort Page), and me had a virtual book club call to discuss Half the Sky: Turning Oppression Into Opportunity for Women Worldwide by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.

Fashion Delivers Foundation was created in the wake of hurricanes Katrina and Rita with a goal to organize the collection and distribution of new clothing and home items to hurricane victims.The group was able to collect and give over $4.5 million dollars worth of men's and women's clothing directly to people in the devastated areas.  

Last week in my post, Keeping Your Balance While Helping Haiti, I suggested that you research organizations working in Haiti that you would like to support by donating, volunteering, or helping in some other way throughout 2010.  We need to support the people of Haiti now, but also in the future, when the hard work of rebuilding begins.

PROFAMIL Haiti has provided sexual and reproductive health services in Haiti since 1984. This organization is part of a 40 member organization network called International Planned Parenthood Federation/Western Hemisphere Region (IPPF/WHR). The program in Haiti has three clinics, but the ones in Port-au-Prince, and Jacmel were completely destroyed by the earthquake as you can see by the photo below.  

When a tragedy like the earthquake in Haiti happens, and the images and stories are so disturbing, it is normal to feel extreme emotions: despair, depression, anxiety that help isn't getting their fast enough, guilt, even denial. The thing is, extreme emotions are not always the most productive ones. Eventually, Haiti will be out of the 24-hour news cycle, but its people will still need support. Make a commitment this month to do your part to help over the long term, in a balanced way.

Britt Bravo's last two posts on Haiti, have provided a good round up of how to help and the creative fundraising that is taking place. I wanted to share these two stories from Haiti from on the ground and a bird's eye view about nonprofit work there. Earthquake Aftermath in Jacmel

When I posted about How to Help Haitian Earthquake Survivors on Tuesday evening, there wasn't much information out yet about how to help, but now there are lots of posts and articles with lists of organizations you can donate to like:

Last week, I created an iPhone app out of my blog in ten minutes at a cost of $50 using a service call AppMkr.  It made wonder when we'll start to see more iPhone apps from and to benefit nonprofits.  

The people of Haiti are going to need a lot of help after today's 7.0 earthquake. You can see photos of some of the damage as they come in on PicFog.Below is a quick list of organizations asking for donations. If you know of other ways to help, please post ideas in the comments. I'm particularly interested in hearing about grassroots organizations.

"Fast forward four years later, she's the owner of her own company. Business is booming. She's growing her business. . . . we can't fast forward to three generations from now, but the trajectory of her family, I guarantee you, has been changed forever."Early last month I chatted with Executive Director, Patricia Loya, about La Cocina, a San Francisco incubator kitchen for women.

Below is my 5th annual list of favorite do-good books that I read in 2009, but this year I'm calling it my Have Fun Do Good Book list. Wahoo! You can also check out my lists from 2005-2008:Favorite Do-Good Books of 2008Favorite Do-Good Books of 2007Favorite Do-Good Books of 2006

Over the Christmas break, I was able to support following Causes: