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naomikritzerSo, you've no doubt heard of the Heifer Project; those are the people who send out a catalog a couple of times a year so you can order ducks, cows, or water buffalo for all your friends and relations. Your friends and relations won't actually get ducks, cows, or water buffalo, of course; someone in a third world country will get it. (And actually, it's not like there's some guy out there who will get that water buffalo YOU paid for; all the money goes into a bucket, and Heifer works with communities to see what they need, like pretty much every other development group out there.)
I have mixed feelings about the gift catalog approach to fundraising. (I might do a separate post on this.) But, definitely one of the good things about it is that it's a way to make charitable giving tangible to kids. I write short pieces on parenting for an online service (go2.com) and I wrote a piece for them today all about ways to teach kids about charitable giving. I wanted to mention multiple organizations that offer this sort of catalog (because everyone already knows about the Heifer Project) so I dug a few up. OxFam America also has a gift catalog, called Oxfam America Unwrapped, and offers a more diverse selection of gifts -- animals, but also things like books for school children, training for midwives, wells and water purification, etc.
They will also let you give someone shit ($12, or for $24 you can give them twice the shit!), a can of worms ($18), and crabs ($18).
If you actually follow the links you'll see that they make a weak and more-tasteful-than-the-obvious-one joke about the manure ("show your loved ones that you really "give a $%@#" for our planet") and the crabs ("no need to feel crabby") but you know what? They CLEARLY know who they're really targeting with these items, or they wouldn't have put the manure, can of worms, and crabs right in a line like that.
I love it. I'm not going to donate to OxFam America because we already have two international relief organizations we donate to and we try to focus our giving to minimize the number of mailing lists we wind up on. But I found this hilarious and hey, if Elin Nordegren wanders by looking for gift ideas for Tiger, now she knows just what to get for him!
I have mixed feelings about the gift catalog approach to fundraising. (I might do a separate post on this.) But, definitely one of the good things about it is that it's a way to make charitable giving tangible to kids. I write short pieces on parenting for an online service (go2.com) and I wrote a piece for them today all about ways to teach kids about charitable giving. I wanted to mention multiple organizations that offer this sort of catalog (because everyone already knows about the Heifer Project) so I dug a few up. OxFam America also has a gift catalog, called Oxfam America Unwrapped, and offers a more diverse selection of gifts -- animals, but also things like books for school children, training for midwives, wells and water purification, etc.
They will also let you give someone shit ($12, or for $24 you can give them twice the shit!), a can of worms ($18), and crabs ($18).
If you actually follow the links you'll see that they make a weak and more-tasteful-than-the-obvious-one joke about the manure ("show your loved ones that you really "give a $%@#" for our planet") and the crabs ("no need to feel crabby") but you know what? They CLEARLY know who they're really targeting with these items, or they wouldn't have put the manure, can of worms, and crabs right in a line like that.
I love it. I'm not going to donate to OxFam America because we already have two international relief organizations we donate to and we try to focus our giving to minimize the number of mailing lists we wind up on. But I found this hilarious and hey, if Elin Nordegren wanders by looking for gift ideas for Tiger, now she knows just what to get for him!
Oxfam America Unwrapped rocks!
Date: 2009-12-08 03:01 pm (UTC)