One of the most brilliant cultural goods created in the last few years is World Vision's annual "gift catalog," featuring giving opportunities that support that organization's development efforts worldwide. Every other catalog that comes into our home goes straight into the recycling (after being flagged for entry into the fantastic stop-the-catalog service
Catalog Choice). But this one goes on the dining room table, where our kids delight in finding "gifts" that match the interests of our various farflung relatives, and raid their piggy banks to be able to afford soccer balls in Africa, music lessons in South Asia, or a goat in Haiti. To be sure, World Vision's gift catalog is a bit of a convenient fiction—as is its child sponsorship program, in which we also participate. The last thing any development organization needs is donors micromanaging the delivery of a goat. And yet the great value of this cultural good is that it makes the concrete results of well-implemented programs of community development and crisis relief so visible and tangible to both children and grownups. This year almost all our Christmas gifts for relatives beyond our immediate family will be drawn from this catalog. Hooray.
Andy:

The early-morning bleating of a dairy goat is a happy sound for children in countries like Haiti and Kenya — they know it’s ready to be milked. A goat nourishes a family with protein-rich milk, cheese, and yogurt, and can offer a much-needed income boost by providing offspring and extra dairy products for sale at the market. It even provides fertilizer that can dramatically increase crop yields!