Heifer International: The Greener Good for Holiday Giving

Heifer International, http://www.heifer.org, a world hunger organization, provides the perfect holiday gift alternative for the green-minded client, the hard-to-shop-for person who says, "Please, no more stuff!" and for tighter gift budgets. Heifer focuses on doing one thing well: Helping impoverished families who are among the 2 billion people living on less than $2 a day gain better livelihoods by providing livestock and earth-friendly agricultural training for family farms.

Rather than supplying food aid for a temporary solution, Heifer puts into practice the ancient wisdom: "Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime." It's a solution that changes lives for millions of people -- more than 50 million since Heifer began in 1944.

A gift to Heifer provides livestock and training to farmers in rural areas so they can greatly increase their small farms' production to feed their families and have a surplus to sell for better incomes. Heifer teaches urban gardening to improve incomes and nutrition for impoverished people in U.S. inner cities.

Every Heifer project is environmentally sound. In developing countries, livestock manure provides organic compost and greatly increases crop production for better nutrition and income. Heifer adds bees, trees and worms for increasing crop yields -- a powerful engine for ending poverty one family, one community at a time.

Heifer provides lasting solutions. Benefits multiply through Heifer's "Passing on the Gift" promise: every family that receives training and livestock gives knowledge and animal offspring to another family in need. This act in itself transforms communities -- dignity abounds when recipients get to give back.

For as little as $10 for a share of an animal, or $20 for a flock of chicks, or $500 for a dairy cow, or $5,000 for a whole "ark" full of animals, a donation in honor of a loved one means making a life-changing difference to a family in need.

By supporting the work of this leading nonprofit this holiday season, donors are assured that their gifts -- however small or grand -- are put to the best use for solutions that strengthen whole communities.

So this holiday, encourage your readers to give. Gifts with meaning. Gifts that help end hunger and poverty. Gifts to Heifer International. Gifts that multiply for generations to come.