SanWild
SanWild is a well-run, organization doing desperately important work with large wildlife in South Africa. The story of its formation is both fascinating and inspiring. (see below, or check out their beautiful website at SanWild.com)
We visited SanWild this summer in South Africa and spent hours with its desperately busy founder - Louise Jubert. 
We first learned about SanWild through a newspaper article that described how they had recently taken-in 16 lions that were headed for a "canned hunting ranch" where foreigners pay up to $22,000 to shoot a fenced in, tame lion. It seems that pressures like this, and even more maddening problems - like poaching and tribal medicine trade - keep South African wildlife under constant siege.
Louise and her husband (and their fabulous team) conduct highly sophisticated sting operations to thwart poaching. They do hundreds of complex rescues, and provide a safe home for too many large animals to count.
They could assuredly use your help, and we feel confident in saying that they would be using your support very wisely. 
We found Louise to be so inspiring. She is startlingly frank in her communication style, which belies her passion and commitment to every animal. There was no end to the stories and photos she had to share with us.
She is clever, witty, and has a mastery of keeping many balls in the air. To that end, though, she could use administrative assistance. How they manage the workload at SanWild is a wonder in itself. We found Louise to have some super ideas for out-reach and public education, but not enough time to see any of those concepts get their day in the sun. With more financial support, SanWild could expand their work to include more pro-active programs.
There is no doubt that there would be few obstacles to Louise and her team, if it were not for funding and time constraints.
For instance, Louise's interest in writing an illustrated children's book about the problem of poaching could be a wonderful concept. What she needs is someone, who can be TOTALLY self-directed, to help her put together the artwork, writing and distribution of such a book. 
They do not have time to "manage" volunteers at SanWild, but they would entertain the offers of help from people who are "self-starters". They constantly need help to build and repair anti-poaching fencing. There is also plenty of plain hard work to maintain animal enclosures and keep up the property. Not much to do for "bunny huggers" here folks!.... But we think SanWild would entertain inquiries and offers of help, if you have very specific ideas about assisting them.
Again... the need is huge here, and this organization is doing some fabulous work. Take some time to really read through their website. You'll come away with valuable motivation to support their efforts. Help them if you can.
Their story begins..
with the fate of two Hippos who lived their lives in circuses in France, but have found a home with SanWild where they can safely live out their lives in the SanWild reserve. In 2006, SanWild, in conjunction with a coalition of others, took on a massive animal rescue project to save a small herd of African elephants from a culling operation. The stories of success go on and on. You can find out more at www.SanWild.com .
If you want to read a moving (yet very disturbing) news story about why SanWild is so important, check out this link: http://ecolocalizer.com/2009/12/29/canned-hunting-ban-breeders-threaten-mass-lion-slaughter (only if you have a strong stomach and constitution!)
THE HISTORY OF SANWILD as copied directly from their website:
"In 1989, a South African based conservation organization, the Rhino & Elephant Foundation, launched a fundraising campaign for black rhinos under the name of Project Rhino. The campaign received considerable media coverage and it caught the imagination and attention of Louise Joubert, an account executive for a major advertising agency in Cape Town. She contacted the Rhino & Elephant Foundation and suggested that they run a telethon to raise funds. This was an entirely new concept in fundraising at the time, but Louise's initiative and dedication resulted in National Rhino Pledge Day on 29 October 1989.
The telethon, which was televised throughout the day, raised R1.78 million and much of the funding was used to buy land to extend the Addo Elephant National Park, which has a significant population of black rhino. Funds were also used to purchase much needed anti-poaching equipment and to translocate black rhinos from danger zones.
Louise's brush with wildlife conservation and its personalities throughout the run-up to Pledge Day changed her life and in 1990, she decided to leave Cape Town and leave her career behind and went to live in the Limpopo Province in order to work with wild animals. However, she inadvertently found herself involved in a component of a then fledgling wildlife industry - game capture.
Over the ten years that followed, Louise saw many things that did not sit well with her, but the game-and-wildlife trade industry has a persuasive way of justifying its activities and as Louise herself says, "If you silence your conscience for long enough, it eventually stops speaking to you". It was especially the young un-weaned animals suffering as a result of mass game relocation that prompted her into action and she began taking in orphaned and injured animals for hand raising - particularly plains game species such as zebra, kudu and blue wildebeest. This one on one close contact with young wild animals and the success of her efforts to rehabilitate them to become independent, free-ranging wild animals awoke her silenced conscience.
Louise became increasingly empathetic to the animals caught up in South Africa's wildlife industry and more and more she became an outspoken critic of the industry's unethical and inhumane operators.
While still working for a game relocation company, she started taking in orphaned and injured animals for hand-raising and veterinary care for which she paid privately. Rescued animals were treated and hand raised on a small 21-hectare property. The intake of animals slowly increased and also diversified to include all species of wild animals: birds, small mammals, reptiles and smaller predators. There was a great need for a formal rehabilitation centre and emergency response when wild animals found themselves in trouble.
One of the biggest challenges facing the small centre was a desperate need for a safe and protected release area. National Parks and Provincial Game Reserves were simply not interested in taking in rehabilitated or hand raised animals for release. This left Louise with only one option: privately owned game farms. Sadly, many of the privately owned game farms are being used a hunting farms and this most definitely did not present a safe option as a release site.
In a bold attempt in 1998 to secure the animals' future that she had already saved, Louise signed a lease contract for a 960-hectare piece of land with the option to purchase it at a later stage. The small property on which the rehabilitation centre started was sold and the funds used to establish a small rehab centre on the larger property. In 2000, she founded the SanWild Wildlife Trust, a non-profit organization whose main objective would be to raise funds to pay for the land, rescue injured and orphaned wild animals and to secure the animals' long-term welfare and safety. For the first time in South African history, a wildlife reserve was being established that belonged to the wild animals themselves."
We can't currently endorse this organization, but we would encourage you to do your own homework,... perhaps send them a donation, or email to help out in some way,... and give us some feedback here. They sound wonderful and if you are an animal lover, after reading the stories on their website, you may be unable to resist their orbit!