By giving a Heifer gift as part of the Better Present Weekend, you can help brighten up Black Friday.

Dear ***,

Over the next few days, you'll have a rare chance to brighten the world by giving gifts of hope that help struggling families become self-reliant.

The world needs your help to show that "giving" is about more than what you can buy at your nearest big-box retailer. The biggest shopping day of the year, "Black Friday," is right after Thanksgiving. A quick three days later comes "Cyber Monday," the year's biggest shopping day online.

On these two days alone, an estimated $5 billion dollars will be spent on consumer goods. It's a staggering amount, especially when you consider the potential for sustainable change in the lives of struggling families if just a portion of that spending went to alternative gifts to honor those we love.

Gifts to Heifer International can brighten the future of families around the world. Give now!

You can help brighten these hectic days of consumer spending by honoring someone with an online gift from Heifer between now and Monday as part of the "Better Present Weekend."

Wouldn't it be great if we could offset this period of consumer buying frenzy by creating a giving frenzy of our own? What if we could get thousands of people to join together to say "Enough stuff! I want to give a gift that really means something!"

Gifts that mean a new life to someone like Christine Makahumure in Rwanda who lost her son and husband to genocide. Barely able to feed her daughters and parents when the fighting ended, Christine's life was brightened when she received her Heifer cow.

Christine gave her first calf to a neighbor, but she didn't stop there. She provided money so her neighbors could build and apply for their own Heifer cow. She also adopted four war orphans and became a living example of passing on the gift.

We hope that you'll continue the giving tradition as Christine did by honoring someone you love with an online gift from Heifer again this year.

Then, pass on this email to a few friends and challenge them to brighten up Black Friday by giving gifts that can change the future.

If each of us takes a minute this weekend to help shine some light on Black Friday (and Cyber Monday), then maybe the whole world could see that holiday "giving" is also about sharing hope for a better future.

Happy Thanksgiving and wishing you a terrific weekend!

Sincerely,



Ashley Michael
Heifer International