Dallas

Charitable donations rarely promise much in return beyond a massaged conscience, a tote bag, and a microscopic tax write-off that wouldn't even buy you a new tote bag. For a more you-centric donation, grab gear from Veritas Fashion.

Hatched by an artist who's spent time doing charity work in China -- and whose parents run an orphanage in Uganda -- VF's a just-launching, designer v- and crew-neck t-shirt line that sends 20% of its profits to the Veritas Project, a year-old non-profit that supports humanitarian projects in Africa & Asia (presumably ensuring no child has to listen to "Heat of the Moment" again). Printed on ultra-soft, torso-hugging Alternative Apparel 'burnouts' (flash-scorched during production to create a stylishly blotchy background), the eight men's designs include “Future” (yellow bust of Basquiat with his skull haphazardly shooting skyward); "Ode to ES" (a smoking Elliott Smith); and “Release”: a Ugandan boy with his tongue out, catching magenta droplets from a black cloud, just like Canadian children used to love doing during the halcyon days of acid rain. Also from Veritas: a dwindling run of discounted (~$20, for now) shirts from an earlier project, with designs like the blue-silhouetted "Girl", "Senate" (red-silhouetted, ink-dripping senator at lectern), and "Cops", with two lines of uniforms facing each other, but no sign of the Glade-addled man they're supposed to be harassing on the sidewalk.

As for availability, you can also buy the earlier line online right now. The new stuff will soon arrive at choice boutiques nationwide (including Dallas's Talulah Belle & Centre), but you can buy it this Friday at a boozy, line-launching fashion show & afterparty, with live Latin jazz from Tres Leches, plus free food -- which, if you're a charity case, you should feel free to smuggle home in your tote bag.