http://byutv.org/seethegood/post/good-gift-guide.aspx

Heifer International is in the business of ending world hunger. And it’s actually working; today millions of people were fed thanks to 65 years of Heifer projects. And those people are standing on their own feet, and helping others to stand up. They aren’t second-class clients of wealthy people suffering from liberal guilt, living on scraps; they are as good as anyone else in the world and they know it.

Heifer doesn’t give sandwiches to people living unsustainable lifestyles in a unproductive wasteland. Those people will starve the minute you stop sending sandwiches, and in the meantime you’ve reduced them to beggary, and that’s going to wreck their indigenous culture (if they have any left) and diminish them as individuals. Giving people food doesn’t work as a long term solution, it’s only worth doing in short term recovery situations as a part of a broader strategy.

Heifer provides people in war-torn and disaster-wrecked communities with the tools to build a sustainable future based on livestock and agriculture carefully chosen to suit the needs, abilities, and history of the inhabitants of those communities.

Please read about Heifer on their website at http://www.heifer.org – I’m not an employee or in any other way associated with heifer, although over the years I have helped buy an elephant, dozens of heifers, and many chickens, bees, and ducks.

Heifer is different. It’s better. Recipients of Heifer assistance aren’t asked to “pay it back” – they are required to “pay it forward” by helping somebody else get back on their feet. This means a homeless single mother doesn’t have to sacrifice her pride in order to feed her children, in fact she will get to involve the children in an worthwhile global enterprise. Once she’s paid forward, she can continue to be involved with charity work or not, as she pleases.

Since this is the Boing, I feel that I should point out that while Heifer was started by a Christian in accordance with his beliefs, it is not evangelical and does not discriminate based on faith or lack thereof. You are welcome to believe what you like as long as you want to help world hunger.

Oh, and the ACLU. And I think Amnesty International . . . I need to check on that.

Ususally I donate to the EFF (I’m member number 127), but there were so many disasters this year that I ended up donation more to Mercy Corps and the like.

Here is a link to the main donation page or get some spiffy swag with your donation here

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/about_vfp.vp.html

http://www.veteransforpeace.org/join_donate.vp.html

Forget the Red Cross. If you want to give to a humanitarian aid organization, give to the MSF.

If you’re also into human rights causes, you may wish to consider the Innocence Project. The Innocence Project assists prisoners who could be proven innocent through DNA testing. They’ve managed to help exonerate dozens of people convicted wrongly, including multiple death-row inmates. Including a few sadly posthumously.

http://www.prajwalaindia.com/
Anti trafficking organization in India.

More info about this organization on the TED Blog:
http://www.ted.com/speakers/sunitha_krishnan.html

You can also make a contribution to this organization via globalgiving.org

One thing I would like to add: Support your local food bank and soup kitchen. People are getting hungry right now. Really hungry. I will try to send a donation to the EFF too, but my first priority when giving was food, because freedom’s not much use to the dead. If I have anything left over on December 31 it’s going to the EFF, but the food bank and soup kitchen came first.

Wikimedia Foundation

*coughwikileakscough*

Citizens Advice
Many people think they are government funded but it’s a charity and like many it’s struggling for resources. I volunteer for my local bureau and they do sterling work.

Anybody wanting to develop their skills to be an effective global citizen may enrol for free on http://www.geebiz.org before March 9, 2011. You will be placed into a global virtual team of eight with members from four to six diverse countries and given a three week challenge on March 23. Donors are sought to enable this programme to continue, with many options for recognition and impact available.

Also, they’ve got corporate funding to match all incoming donations 1:1 right now.

They’re constantly pushing to open up fields like science and education for content/data sharing and they’ve done some great work to that regard over the last year.