Looks quite cool to be able to buy a goat or chickens. Is there an explicitly Christian charity that enables something similar?

I know Oxfam can justify milking the myth of an Anthropogenic Global Warming mass infanticide in the name of raising money for the greater good, but I won't be giving them another cent until they have the decency to reign their advertising back to baseline reality.

After all, if you really believe people are causing the climate to catastrophically change, why would you want to save them in a region with explosive population growth attached to a stricken economy?

Okay so that sounds cold, but really, the world might be heading towards a C02-led apocalypse (maybe), but we're not seeing that right now. If people are dying, it's for some other reason. Like they set up home in a flood plain. Or a massive earthquake took out their town.

The big picture gets murkier the more these people lie. Don't encourage them.

Two other options:
Kiva.org gift cards. You buy the card and they make the loan. They can either take the cash when the loan is paid back or pay it forward to the next person.

Heifer International. Buy animals for the developing world. You can buy a share of a larger animal or smaller animals. I usually go for a share of a goat as they are super useful.

@Jack Hooper: [multiple citations needed]

And yet another couple of options:

Seva Foundation lets you sponsor various "gifts of service," such as cataract surgeries and training sessions for health workers in developing countries:

http://www.seva.org/site/PageServer?pagename=gos2008_home

And the International Crane Foundation lets you adopt a Whooping Crane in the flock being established in the wild in Wisconsin:

https://www.savingcranes.org/adoptacrane/index.php

+1 on heifer project. we visited one of their farms in rutland ma and found a well run farm with healthy animals.

@jack hooper. to drop population, you need to raise the status of women so they have the power to regulate the number of children they have. livestock and food are ways of gaining that power in many parts of the world.

all over the world, we need to stop all health care for those past the end of their useful life (i.e. over 40) . (1/2 serious)

May I suggest a small donation to the Human Fund? It's money for people.

Dear all, check out AGI (Alternative Gifts International). This is where my daughter & I do our Christmas shopping every year. Similar to Heifer but LOTS less overhead. Lovely place to support. Thank you...

oxfam only spends 80% of your money on the actual charity (see charity navigator for the details). They spend 13% of their $73M in revenue on fundraisers. Crazy.

I prefer the local food bank, where 95% of my money goes towards feeding people in need, and 3% is for fundraising.

Also on this topic, I always give cash to food charities instead of the "bag of cans". They can get a much better deal than I can on bulk purchases, and then they don't have to waste time with volunteers sorting the hell out of the misc stuff that people like to donate (I've done it, it sucks).

@laz: Having worked for a number of nonprofits over the years, I can say that 80% is actually quite efficient in terms of the ratio of direct aid to overhead. And it's worth keeping in mind that providing aid to grassroots organizations in developing countries, while maintaining tight oversight on how the money's used in order to avoid corruption and misuse of funds, is a lot more complex and expensive than running a local food bank operation.

That said, I have no particular allegiance to Oxfam, and I proposed Oxfam Unwrapped as a Cool Tool in more of the generic sense: most of the alternatives mentioned in the comments here sound great to me.

I never looked into Oxfam myself until I read Peter Singer's essay in the New York Times a couple of years ago, entitled "How Much Should a Billionaire Give -- And How Much Should You?" He made a compelling case for charity, so compelling in fact that it inspired me to set myself an annual goal (as a percentage of my income) for giving. When I checked out his website I learned that after much research he settled on Oxfam as his chosen charity due to their effectiveness and efficiency. I also give money to The Nature Conservancy, since I've found them to be one of the most effective environmental NGOs around: they are narrowly focused, results-oriented, and very good at what they do.

@ laz: You pointed out what appears to be a very useful site, Charitynavigator.org, which came to a different interpretation regarding the 80% figure you quoted. Charity Navigator granted Oxfam a four-star rating, a rating that indicates a charity "Exceeds industry standards and outperforms most charities in its cause".
Giving to a local food bank is, of course, an outstanding idea, too.

@ brad: Thanks for the excellent gift idea and your thoughtful explanation here in the comments.
"I proposed Oxfam Unwrapped as a Cool Tool in more of the generic sense: most of the alternatives mentioned in the comments here sound great to me." Indeed.--es

Two thumbs up for Heifer.org! I've been donating to their cause for several years now. The model seems to have a great multiplier effect as brood from the donated animal are again donated within the community.

I "gave" Heifer gifts to all my family a few years ago. We all felt good about it and then the solicitation/junk mail from Heifer started pouring in. We all received a half a dozen or more expensive mailings from Heifer. The cost of those mails likely out weighed our gift to Heifer. As a former executive director of a non-profit I do understand the need to nurture your donors but I was appalled at the waste. It took several calls and emails to Heifer to get the mailings stopped.

While I think Heifer's mission is terrific I won't give to them again.

Hi Brad,

Thank you for blogging about Oxfam America Unwrapped. We are very proud of our alternative gift-giving program. In 2009, Oxfam America received its fourth annual four-star rating from the nation's largest charity evaluator: Charity Navigator. This places Oxfam among 11 percent of charitable organizations nationally.

In 2008, Oxfam America again received the Better Business Bureau's highest rating for charitable organizations by meeting all 20 of its "Standards for Charity Accountability."

Among leading humanitarian organizations, we stand alone in our refusal of US government funds, declining support from any sources that might compromise our independence.

When you give a gift through Oxfam America Unwrapped, you can rest assured you are supporting a charity of the highest calibre.

Dave, you asked if there is an explicitly Christian charity that does something like this. There is, and it's a good one called "adventconspiracy.org".

Donating to charity is a noble and worthy thing. However, "gifting" a donation this way just seems like a pretentious self-congratulation directed at a loved one. Forgive my cynicism, but I'm none too impressed with this idea.

You can honor someone when you sponsor a child through SOS Children's Villages (http://www.sos-usa.org). You can also send a gift from the gift catalog: http://www.sos-usa.org/gift

For 100% utilisation of the gift:
http://sankaranethralaya.org/ a premier non profit eye hospital.
Your gift is treated as a corpus and not all of it is spent. Only the interest is spent.
You can specify the date an eye operation will be done each year, say somebody's birthday and feel happy one person is gaining eyesight each year because of your gift.

@ Mr Grinch
Your point is well taken, however, in our case everyone one involved were adults who felt/agreed that we have way too much "stuff" and wanted to do something different that was hopefully more meaningful.....