When you join our Village as a member/advertiser, a portion of your fee will go toward supporting the following four non-profit charitable organizations: Feeding America (feeding America's poor), Heifer International (providing livestock to undernourished people's around the world so they may sustain themselves), Best Friends Animal Society (to shelter animals and advocate for their welfare) and National Parks Conservation Association (to preserve our beautiful wilderness and natural national treasures.)
Feeding America is the nation's largest charitable hunger relief organization. Feeding America supports a network of 206 food banks in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Before September 2008, Feeding America was named America's Second Harvest The Nation's Food Bank Network. The organization adopted a rebranding effort in order to help better educate and engage the public about its role in the fight against hunger. Feeding America's mission is to feed one million more people each year, to significantly increase participation in federal nutrition programs, and to inspire the public to take action.
Heifer International's mission is to end hunger and poverty while caring for the earth. For more than 60 years, Heifer International has provided livestock and environmentally sound agricultural training to improve the lives of those who struggle daily for reliable sources of food and income. And since 1944, the organization has helped 48 million people through training in livestock development and livestock gifts that multiply. Every gift of an animal provides direct benefits such as milk, eggs, wool, fertilizer, as well as indirect benefits that increase family incomes for better housing, nutrition, health care and school fees for children. Recipients pass on the gift of offspring of their cows, goats and other livestock to others in an ever-widening circle of hope. Heifer currently works in more than 57 countries, including the U.S.
Best Friends Animal Society, one of America's foremost animal rescue organizations, operates the country's largest sanctuary for abused and abandoned animals. On any given day, Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, located in southwestern Utah, is home to approximately 2,000 dogs, cats, horses, rabbits, birds, and other animals. Founded in 1984, Best Friends advances nationwide initiatives by working with shelter and rescue groups around the country. The society also publishes Best Friends magazine, the nation's largest general interest, pet-related magazine with approximately 300,000 subscribers.
Americans expect the nation's national parks to have clean air and healthy wildlife, and that our nation's historical treasures will be well-cared for. But years of underfunding and external threats such as air pollution and climate change are taking their toll. National Parks Conservation Association is working on key initiatives to restore America's national parks by the centennial anniversary of the National Park Service in 2016. In addition to its national headquarters in Washington, D.C., NPCA has 25 regional and field offices across the country--working as the first line of defense in the continuing struggle to fulfill its mission to protect the national parks for present and future generations. NPCA's regional and field staffs are uniquely poised to form effective partnerships with local activists, governments, and organizations.
