Brayden Bittel on Making Giving Back Easy

After asking his family to support local nonprofits during birthdays for several years, Brayden Bittel decided to create Planet Presents to help others do the same. He wants to prove that anyone – especially kids – can make a difference.

Brayden is a teenager living in Orange County, California, and the founder of Planet Presents. He is a theater and creative writing student at the Orange County School of the Arts.

In this interview, you’ll see how he’s inspiring young people to make giving back meaningful and fun.

What inspired you to create Planet Presents?

While environmentalism and giving back have been part of my life for as long as I can remember, my path toward environmental activism started during a trip to Disney World when I was ten. I realized Disney only offered paper straws in their “nature-centric” theme park, while plastic straws remained in the other parks. It only seemed to make sense that, if Disney was truly trying to be environmentally-conscious, they would completely phase out plastic straws. 

With some encouragement and help from my mom, I wrote a Change.org petition requesting that Disney stop using all plastic cutlery. It garnered almost 35,000 signatures, and Disney agreed to stop providing single-use plastic throughout the company. That whole experience was definitely foundational in showing me the power that a single person could have to create change in the world, and inspired me down the road to continue with environmental activism. 

As my 13th birthday approached, my friends and family asked what I wanted. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted, much less needed, and gift cards always seemed to sit on my shelf for years before they were used. So I decided to use my birthday as a vehicle for good, asking my family to donate to nonprofits like the Pacific Marine Mammal Center or Coral Gardeners. 

Many of my friends experienced the same dilemma. Instead of creating more pollution, we realized we could ask our friends and family to donate to causes we were passionate about and, with enough participants, create a profound effect on society.

With that vision, I created Planet Presents to bridge the gap between the public and environmental nonprofits, helping people to find causes they’re passionate about and making giving accessible.

What does giving back mean to you?

I was really fortunate to be part of a family that realized the importance of giving back to the community and helping leave the world a little better than you found it. My mom would often bring me along to drop off donations at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach.

Looking back, those experiences helped cement the importance of nonprofit work and philanthropy in my mind. As I got older and became more aware of issues like climate change, plastic pollution, coral bleaching, etc, I wanted to be able to do something to create change for the environment, and I was lucky to have parents that empowered me to be that change I wanted to see in the world. To me, giving back means to contribute to the causes that have impacted you in some way you find significant, directly or indirectly.

The Pacific Marine Mammal Center, Coral Gardeners, Coastwalk, and the majority of the nonprofits listed on Planet Presents help to ensure the environment and its inhabitants are healthy and functional, so my generation can continue to experience and appreciate them. And one of the best parts about giving back is that it can take so many different forms.

It can be a fiscal donation or it can also be giving your afternoon to participate in a beach cleanup, or lending your voice to educate your neighbors on the importance of reducing waste, or even reposting a story from a nonprofit’s Instagram page.

Giving back looks different for everyone based on their financial, social, and time limitations, but there is always a way for someone to contribute to a cause they’re passionate about.

Growing up, was philanthropy part of your holiday experience?

When I was younger, my parents would collect spare change throughout the year and let my sister and me choose toys to bring to a local fire station’s toy drive. That’s a fantastic way for people to give back specifically for the holidays. There’s almost always a toy or supply drive going on through an organization near you around the holidays.

Many nonprofits also offer stuffed animals, bracelets, certificates, or other material representations of donations to engage younger audiences in their mission, which I loved as a younger kid. Some well-known examples that come to mind are 4Ocean’s “one pound of sea waste removed” bracelets and the World Wildlife Fund’s almost limitless catalog of gifts and stuffed animals, but many of the nonprofits on Planet Presents have similar options to help show kids the power that giving can have.

Can you share more about how Planet Presents helps people find meaningful causes to support?

Connecting people to causes they find valuable and meaningful was one of the central reasons I wanted to create Planet Presents. One of the key pillars of Planet Presents is the Donation Center, a one-of-a-kind environmental nonprofit gift registry. Users can select specific nonprofits and dollar amounts they want to add to their personalized wishlist, then send out the list to friends and family for whatever special occasion they desire. 

If a person doesn’t know what type of cause they most want to give to yet, we offer a “What’s Your Environmental Passion” quiz. It’s a fun and easy tool that sorts the user into one of four categories and recommends several nonprofits for further exploration. From there, the Planet Presents database provides detailed information on each nonprofit’s central goals and strategies, as well as links to the organization’s website for further exploration.

What are some of your favorite organizations you’ve worked with?

Throughout this almost year-long process, I think the organizations I’ve liked working with the most have been the ones I’d had little to no knowledge of before creating Planet Presents.

I’ve been fortunate enough to interview people at these nonprofits to gain a better, more personal understanding of their missions and operations. The advice they’ve given me and the kind words they’ve had about Planet Presents has really encouraged me to keep going and make this project as accessible as possible.

I’m really looking forward to coming into contact with new nonprofits in the future and continuing to grow alongside these incredible organizations. 

Visit PlanetPresents.org to find the perfect charitable gift this holiday season or year round.