"Donate a chicken" type charities

[Becca]

I would like to sit down with my daughter and let her choose a holiday donation this year. We are working on understanding that not everyone has toys or food or a place to live. So I was thinking that we would pick one of the charities that has the options of "$20 buys a chicken so a family can get eggs" and "$40 buys a goat so a family can get milk" - so that she can look through and decide what type of animal/resource to donate.

I hope someone knows what I am talking about.

When I googled for options, I was overwhelmed with the choices. So I thought I would check here to see if anyone has any favorite/recommended charities to give me a place to start.

Thanks for any help!

[LoveTrains]

Heifer International
www.heifer.org/

I don't know if they are good, I just know they do this.

[Velvetshady]

My parents and aunt give through Heifer Intl and so I get their "catalog". Have one in front of me right now (as DH picked up 4 days of mail yesterday)--a Flock of Chicks is $20.

[niemand88f]

Nov 27, 2012 19:21:30 GMT -5 LoveTrains said:

Heifer International
www.heifer.org/

I don't know if they are good, I just know they do this.

Heifer is one of the better ones (might even have been the first one?), they get good ratings from charity watchdogs. I would recommend them.

[miss1180]

we adopted our son from Korea in August, and our agency does this.
Holt International Children's Services www.holtintl.org

i'm not sure how "reputatable" they are with this kind of thing, but as an adoption agency I think they are considered one of the "best". They've been around since the 1950s, and really have a long history as an organization...

[pugz]

we've done it thru world vision before but we sponsor a child with them.

have you thought about sponsoring a child? your DD could write letters and get updates in return.

[MadamePresident]

I give through Gospel for Asia. Its a Christian organization all money is spent as designated. The office workers have to raise their own support.

Chickens are $11
www.gfa.org/donation/browse/items/from-the-stable/

[Deleted]

I've done heifer in the past.

[isabel]

No advice, but I really like this idea.

[sessy]

Yup Heifer international is a great program. We've bought animals through them for years and years.

[Becca]

Thanks! Heifer was one of the ones I first looked at. But they had a disclaimer on their website that donations aren't actually followed through to actual animals. ie - if I "buy a chicken" it doesn't actually go to buy a chicken, it goes to support the greater heifer mission.

In and of itself, I guess I am ok with that if they are a well-respected org, but it just gave me some pause. I'll peek at their financials quick and go with them if nothing wonky jumps out at me.

Thanks for all the thoughts! I'll definitely check out some of the others too.

[Deleted]

I know plan Canada does this too, for all you Canucks and they have decent reviews.

[LoveTrains]

Mx, I am pleased to see your input on this.

I was going to add that tons of charities are doing the catalogs now because donors love them. We are doing a catalog right now for my job. We also have the language that your gift of $x can help provide something like y and a disclaimer in the back that we are not actually purchasing the items.

[Becca]

Nov 28, 2012 8:08:41 GMT -5 @mx said:

Nov 28, 2012 7:06:58 GMT -5 Becca said:

Thanks! Heifer was one of the ones I first looked at. But they had a disclaimer on their website that donations aren't actually followed through to actual animals. ie - if I "buy a chicken" it doesn't actually go to buy a chicken, it goes to support the greater heifer mission.

In and of itself, I guess I am ok with that if they are a well-respected org, but it just gave me some pause.

That's a good thing. Any charity that is going to literally hand out the number of chickens that people buy between Dec. 1 and 24 of each year is going to be insanely ineffective and have virtually no positive impact on poverty, household assets, nutrition or any of the other supposed outcomes for beneficiaries. All of the big, respectable international charities have gone with the "give a chicken" approach because donors love it. But none of them are actually giving away chickens on a 1:1 basis for the chickens purchased. For one thing--there may not actually be the need for chickens at the level they are purchased and the funds can be allocated to more critical needs that are more difficult to fundraise for (like, say, purchase of fertilizer).

And I side eye any charity that claims to have no administrative costs. If it's true, there is no way they can be accountable to their mission and their beneficiaries. And if it isn't, they're just using creative accounting in a race to the bottom that tricks donors into thinking they are "better" when in reality, the level of funds spent on overhead has virtually no relationship with the effectiveness of your interventions. It's a red herring.

Oh, I don't disagree. I am a CPA that specialize in audits of NFPs (among other things) so I know my way around NFP financial practices.

But not knowing heifer specifically, that disclaimer also gives them an out to use the money for whatever the hell they want (vs a restricted donation), which may or may not be where I want my money going. It is a double edge sword. That is why I mentioned looking at their financials - I will peek at their 990 and functional expenses and make sure nothing looks out of whack to me

[kaylie]

This is the Charity Navigator data for Heifer. www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=3809

I'm sort of shocked that they spend 20% of their operating budget on fundraising. You might want to look at Oxfam (they have a similar program) which is a bit more efficient: www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4288

[magpie]

We have donated through Oxfam America. I can't remember why we chose them over Heifer, but I suspect it may have been because it was not faith-affiliated.

[Deleted]

We donate through Food for the Poor-they do animals, wells, etc--we've even donated houses (huts really). They sent us pics of the families in front of the home we paid for which is nice to show the kids. It's very decidedly a Christian organization. They do use almost all the money donated for program costs which I like.

[notsocreepylurker]

Not 100% related but I donate to my city's zoo. You can "adopt" an animal or donate to food costs. Maybe if you went that route you could take your daughter to the zoo and say Hey - that's the animal we helped out at Christmas.

ETA: this doesn't help with the whole Helping out other families/people thing though -- sorry about that. I tend to like animals more than people most days ;D

[rosetyler]

I'll throw in another recommendation for Heifer - I've worked with them for several years through church projects, including continuing research on how they operate, and feel very good about donating to them.