Two very interesting nonprofits

[Scoop Snoop]

There are so many nonprofits to choose from for Christmas giving, but I want to tell you about two that my wife and I especially like.

The first one has a really unusual name- The Heifer Project. They offer very highly developed programs to set up people in agriculture and animal husbandry in poor areas with the goal being self-sufficiency. Their programs are comprehensive and cover everything imaginable in running farm programs, including marketing the products. So how did they come up with the name? In post war Europe, not only the cities and towns but the farms were devastated. The U.S. was sending massive supplies of agricultural products including milk. An American farmer said, "that's fine for now, but what they really need are heifers." He offered some of his.

One of the keys in the Heifer Project programs is after you are set up and running your business, you must give some of the offspring from your animals to others in the area so that they can develop their own businesses. How cool is that?

Their past catalogues offered gift suggestions that ranged from "buying" a hive of bees, chickens, goats, or...wait for it....a water buffalo. Want to go big time? You can buy an "ark" for a mere $5,000.

https://www.heifer.org

The second one is Covenant House which has locations in major cities to house and support homeless and sex trafficked teens. Like Heifer, they have very comprehensive and well thought out programs. Past letters we have received from the organization include stories of Covenant House teams going into vacant buildings in NYC to find the teens and offer them shelter. How ballsy is that? They also try to find teens at bus stations and other ports of entry before they are offered "free" food, new clothing, and shelter from pimps.

https://www.covenanthouse.org

[PBRme]

Thank you for sharing.  Sounds like good causes.  Have you checked the percentage of donations that are actually making it to the needy.

[jesmu84]

Is The Human Fund still a thing?

[Scoop Snoop]

Thank you for sharing.  Sounds like good causes.  Have you checked the percentage of donations that are actually making it to the needy.

I have not, but a fair question. However, having served on the board of a local nonprofit that loved to brag about setting aside only 2% of donations for expenses, sometimes an organization like the one I was part of would have, I firmly believe, been MUCH better off using at least 5% of the donations for expenses. I pushed hard for a mere 3% set aside for marketing but faced stubborn resistance. Yet board members often whined, "We've been around for over 20 years, but so many people have never heard of us. Nobody knows who we are." Well DUH! Our so-called marketing program was a bad joke. We had a brochure that looked like it was designed by a fourth-grade art class. It was embarrassingly bad.

With their very comprehensive programs, it would neither surprise me nor bother me if Heifer's and Covenant's expenses were somewhat above average, but if significantly above? Why is a fair question.

[Hards Alumni]

Heifer.org is one of my favorites.

Personally, I also really like Primates Incorporated.

https://primatesinc.com/

Primates Incorporated’s mission is to improve the quality of life for monkeys from research facilities, private ownerships, and the entertainment industry by providing them with an enriching and spacious indoor/outdoor sanctuary near Westfield, Wisconsin.

They're local also, so that helps.

[Herman Cain]

There are so many nonprofits to choose from for Christmas giving, but I want to tell you about two that my wife and I especially like.

The first one has a really unusual name- The Heifer Project. They offer very highly developed programs to set up people in agriculture and animal husbandry in poor areas with the goal being self-sufficiency. Their programs are comprehensive and cover everything imaginable in running farm programs, including marketing the products. So how did they come up with the name? In post war Europe, not only the cities and towns but the farms were devastated. The U.S. was sending massive supplies of agricultural products including milk. An American farmer said, "that's fine for now, but what they really need are heifers." He offered some of his.

One of the keys in the Heifer Project programs is after you are set up and running your business, you must give some of the offspring from your animals to others in the area so that they can develop their own businesses. How cool is that?

Their past catalogues offered gift suggestions that ranged from "buying" a hive of bees, chickens, goats, or...wait for it....a water buffalo. Want to go big time? You can buy an "ark" for a mere $5,000.

https://www.heifer.org

The second one is Covenant House which has locations in major cities to house and support homeless and sex trafficked teens. Like Heifer, they have very comprehensive and well thought out programs. Past letters we have received from the organization include stories of Covenant House teams going into vacant buildings in NYC to find the teens and offer them shelter. How ballsy is that? They also try to find teens at bus stations and other ports of entry before they are offered "free" food, new clothing, and shelter from pimps.

https://www.covenanthouse.org

Covenant House has been around for a long time.  Very solid charity, I did not realize they expanded to other cities beyond NY

[muwarrior69]

We donate and volunteer at Anchor House which serves the greater Trenton area.

https://anchorhousenj.org/about/about-anchor-house/

[Scoop Snoop]

Covenant House has been around for a long time.  Very solid charity, I did not realize they expanded to other cities beyond NY

I really like charities that develop and run their own problem-solving programs rather than ones that redistribute funds to other charities. The small one I served on the board was a good example. All we did was generate donations and distribute them to groups. I mentioned that I pushed hard and unsuccessfully for allocating 3% for marketing (I secretly wanted 5%, but knew that would be DOA), to generate more donations but long-time board members were adamant that our donors would be upset (with absolutely no evidence offered to support their claims of course) if we departed from our policy of a grand total of 2% (!) for expenses.

While Covenant is a huge charity (unlike the tiny one I was part of), the point I made in this thread earlier is that the amount spent on expenses really needs to be evaluated with how the charity is structured and how extensive their programs are. Both Covenant and Heifer need a ton of money just to support their programs and higher expenses. I firmly believe they are justified. Both know how to get things done.