You can give the gift of goat!

Heifer International is an organization that helps teach people all around the world the benefits of sustainable farming to help alleviate poverty. Its start can be found in a Christian charity when a man sent a boatload of cows to another country to help the poor. Now, people can apply to receive training and animals and in return, they pass on offspring from those animals to another person in need.

For $120 you can "purchase" a goat (or for $10 a "share in a goat") -- and the donation goes to support these efforts. They have also branched out to trees, bees and other farm-related means of helping people help themselves.

A book was even written about Heifer, and even though the group is named after the bovine species, the protagonist animal in the book is ... wait for it ... A GOAT!