$120 is kind of the suggested jump off point for donations to public radio, and they will usually send some sort of gift at that level of donation. I usually get a CD and a magazine subscription, plus a discount card that works at many local restaurants, and they certainly accept gift memberships. If your MIL believes in supporting public media, that could be a good gift. Given how much our government has cut funding to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the NEA over the last 8 years (both of which would get nothing if Bush’s original budgets had passed), they can use that money now more than ever, and in this day and age when the media constantly caters to the most sensational story at best or to the person paying the bills at worst, I find Public Radio to be an indespensible source of factual news that I can’t get anywhere else. But that said, if your MIL is a hardcore conservative, she may view NPR as a tool of the liberal establishment (as Stephen Colbert said, the truth does have a well known liberal bias). One organization I’ve given money to, and I honestly don’t know how much goes to admin costs, is the United Way…what appeals to me there is that they spread the charity around to many other organizations that need money. This year with the flagging economy, I’d suggest anything that helps families…organizations that distribute toys to children, or even better, ones that feed needy people…food banks can’t keep up with the growing demand, and particularly when there’s a double whammy with high commodity prices making everything more expensive to buy. Local food shelves are great, I just don’t know which ones operate in your area.