Sixty-five years ago a dairy cow named Faith was lifted aboard a cargo ship in Mobile, Ala., realizing the vision of Indiana farmer Dan West to help the hungry and becoming the first of millions of animals provided to the world’s poor by Heifer International.
Heifer’s methods have changed since Faith the cow went to a family in Puerto Rico. Today Heifer injects cash into local economies as it acquires animals locally to supply its projects. The high quality livestock that Heifer provides improves the livelihoods of struggling farm families. And today Heifer stresses training and holistic community development using methods refined during the 65 years since Faith began her journey.
But key components of Heifer’s development program were in place for that first shipment of 17 animals to Puerto Rico on July 14, 1944. West and the farmers who created Heifer sent “bred heifers,” animals that were pregnant so that when they arrived they would give birth and start giving milk immediately.
And it was agreed that the first female offspring would be raised up and then given to a neighbor who also promised to pass on the gift of offspring, thus spreading the benefits of livestock ownership far beyond the original group of recipients. Pass on the Gift is a hallmark of Heifer’s work today.
Later Heifer began providing not just cows but also goats, poultry, water buffalo, sheep, pigs, llamas and other culturally appropriate animals, in addition to worms, bees and trees to Africa, Asia, Central and South America and Central and Eastern Europe, and it started hunger projects in the United States. Heifer was set on a path to grow into an international nonprofit helping the hungry gain reliable sources of income and better nutrition.
In the mid-1990s Heifer, under the leadership of its new president, Jo Luck, began a rapid expansion, pioneering the concept of alternative giving with grassroots fundraising from millions of U.S. donors to provide livestock and community development around the world, leading to its growth and becoming among the best-known and largest nonprofit charities in the United States. The Chronicle of Philanthropy ranks it No. 161 among the top 400 U.S. charities. Recently, it received a nearly $43 million gift from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to help 169,000 families—one million people—out of poverty through dairy programs in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda. Its headquarters in Little Rock, Ark., was awarded a Platinum rating by the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy Efficient Design (LEED), its highest honor. In 2004, Heifer won the world’s highest honor given to a charitable organization, the Hilton Humanitarian Award.