I am thinking about donating to them, but was wondering if any of you had any opinions about this organization.
Well, I like them. This will be our fourth year donating to them.
Anybody who helps someone help himself is, in my book doing good work. And that’s what Heifer does.
The Better Business Bureau says:
I really like the idea of providing an on-going source of food, rather than a one-time donation, and we will be donating again this year.
My hippy-type history teacher is letting us donate (if we want to). Seems legit and I think it’s pretty cool. Better to give a gift that keeps on giving, IMHO.
I agree.
I went to a Bazaar where they had a stand. It sounded like a really nice group, but I wanted to ask around first.
I was 100 percent sure this was going to be about some really un-pc web site with pictures of fat people.
I too, was leaning toward the probability of hefty heifers, not heifers for hunger.
I think heifer.org falls under the umbrella of “give a man a fish and he eats for a day, TEACH a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime.” I routinely gift single guy friends with some “cute chicks” through heifer.org, and several members of our family donate in one another’s names in lieu of Christmas/birthday gifts.
I’ve given to “the Heifer Project” for years thru my local CFC campaign. It gives a family a chance to help themselves AND others by giving a cow themselves! Great Org. and a great conversation piece.
My alma mater (Hendrix College) happens to be near The Heifer Project International’s headquarters, is also close to one of their main facilities (Heifer Ranch), and has for years had an internship arrangement with them, so I’ve known many people who’ve been involved with them (though not for many years now). I’ve never heard anything but positives about them, and I certainly love their approach, particularly the obligation of recipients to in turn donate offspring of the donated animals to others in their community.
We’ve been using them for several years. It’s a great concept, and they seem very legitimate. Hell, they were even mentioned on The West Wing. 
We’ve bought gifts through Heifer for my mother-in-law, father-in-law and my mother for the last few years – chicks, ducks, geese (better scurry!), goats, and bees, depending on our financial situation. I checked them out the first year we did it and was impressed, but I admit that I haven’t scoped them out thoroughly since.
Charity Navigator only gives Heifer two stars – not horrible, but not great, either. They seem to use a good chunk of their money for fundraising and administration.
Is there a similar charity with better percentages? I very much like the Heifer Project’s mission, but would prefer to donate to a charity with the least administrative costs possible, of course.
Not to quarrel with my favorite neighbor to the West, but:
It may be that some of the costs involved in the way Heifer operates are included in administrative costs. It’s going to cost more to send a live animal overseas, see that it’s cared for and get it delivered than it would cost to send a sack of corn or a side of meat or to simply mail a check.
I don’t know that that’s the reason for high admin. costs, but it could be.
This may well be.
However, we just received another glossy catalog from them, after having already sent in our donation.
I dunno, I still really like what they do.
I just don’t think they need to send more than one catalog, and I might, FWIW, inform them of my opinion.