Episcopalians all over the country are thinking about what to do with their “Economic Stimulus Checks.” Here’s a thought: Give It 4 Good -- Use it to support the Millennium Development Goals, which will create new opportunities for basic standards of health, economic self-sufficiency and dignity throughout the world, even where there are terrible obstacles to overcome.

To learn more about the MDG’s, visit Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation, http://www.e4gr.org/

To donate some or all of your check to an organization that is already working to achieve the MDG’s, visit the sites below. They have been selected for diversity and reliability by Fr. Matt, and are listed in alphabetical order.

 

Bread for the World is a collective Christian voice urging our nation’s decision makers to end hunger at home and abroad. By changing policies, programs and conditions that allow hunger and poverty to persist, it provides help and opportunity around the world.
http://www.bread.org/

 

 

Millennium Development Goals Inspiration Fund
ER-D is the Episcopal Church’s historic and highly effective agency for bringing both relief in crisis and assistance for rebuilding or building from scratch when the crisis is past.
http://www.er-d.org/mdg_91143_ENG_HTM.htm

 

Five Talents
The top microfinance organization in the Anglican Communion. Its mission is to "fight poverty, create jobs and transform lives by empowering the poor in developing countries using innovative savings and microcredit programs, business training and spiritual development." http://www.fivetalents.org/

 

Friend of the Grady Grossman School This primary school in rural Cambodia is transforming a local economy, empowering children for the future, reducing deforestation, and healing hearts broken by war. Author Kari Grady Grossman, whose family is the driving force behind the development of the school, visited St. John’s last fall. http://www.gradygrossmanschool.org/

 

Heifer Project International
One of the leaders of the sustainable development movement
http://www.heifer.org/

 

 

Kiva
An agency that helps you make micro loans to specific entrepreneurs in the developing world, empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty
http://www.kiva.org/

 

 

Partners In Health
This remarkable organization is committed to doing “whatever it takes” to heal patients in the most inaccessible, poverty-stricken places on earth. This always includes self-sufficient economic development along with medical treatment.
http://www.pih.org/home.html