The Motley Fool

Name That Company

I’m the nation’s largest turkey processor. I trace my history back to 1891, when a son of German immigrants founded me in Minnesota. I debuted the world’s first canned ham in 1926 and a year later had salesmen selling from “sausage trucks.” In 1937, I introduced a now-famous luncheon meat made of spiced ham. My brands include Dinty Moore, Herb-Ox, Chi-Chi’s, House of Tsang, Pataks and Little Sizzlers. In 1986, I bought Jennie-O, the premier maker of turkey products. I rake in more than $4 billion annually and have increased my dividends for 31 consecutive years. Who am I? (Answer: Hormel Foods)

Know the answer? Send it to us with Foolish Trivia on the top and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a nifty prize! The address is Motley Fool, Box 19529, Alexandria, Va. 22320-0529. Send questions for Ask the Fool, Dumbest (or Smartest) Investments (up to 100 words), and your Trivia entries to Fool@fool.com.

Foolanthropy 2002

The Motley Fool is raising money for five unusual charities in our sixth annual charity drive. Nominated by our readers online, they’re truly “Foolanthropic.” That is, they create sustainable solutions, their missions are epic in scope, and their beneficiaries participate in their own aid. Please meet some wonderful organizations:

It feeds 23 million Americans annually through food banks and food-rescue programs. It also operates Community Kitchens, where underemployed people learn food-service job skills and prepare meals for the hungry.

  • Ashoka, (703) 527-8300, ext. 256, www.ashoka.org. The group finds practical visionaries with world-changing ideas and offers them a modest living stipend for three years, freeing them to work full-time implementing their innovative solutions. Ashoka’s social entrepreneurs have, for example, brought electricity to millions in rural Brazil, revolutionized India’s elementary school curriculum and preserved endangered grassland in South Africa.
  • Grameen Foundation USA, (888) 76-GFUSA, www.gfusa.org. It supports microfinance programs that lend money to the poorest of the poor, in the United States and developing countries, so they can start small businesses and lift themselves out of poverty with dignity. Only a few dollars can transform lives, and the money is re-lent over and over again.
  • Heifer International, (800) 422-0474, www.heifer.org. The organization gives economic survival to poor families worldwide by providing livestock and training, enabling them to improve their health, earn money, educate their children and preserve their environment. Recipients give their animals’ first female offspring to other needy people, continuing a chain of sharing, community building and self-reliance from Appalachia to Zambia.
  • Lifewater International, (888) 543-3426, www.lifewater.org. It trains people worldwide to drill and maintain water wells for themselves, donating materials and the volunteered time of geologists and other professionals. More than a billion people don’t have adequate access to safe drinking water and good sanitation.

Learn more about these fascinating organizations and how to support them at www.fool.com. You also can send checks made out to any of the charities above to us at: Foolanthropy, c/o The Motley Fool, 123 N. Pitt St., Alexandria, Va 22314. We’ll forward the checks.

Single shares

I’d like to give out single shares of stock to friends and family members as holiday gifts. How can I do that? – C.G., Rohnert Park, Calif.

Great idea! Perhaps you’ll get some of your loved ones so interested in their new holdings that they’ll begin learning more about investing. If so, this gift could eventually transform their financial futures.

There are many Web sites from which you can buy one share of a stock as a gift. Examples include www.registerstock.com, www.oneshare.com, www.firstshare.com and www.frameastock.com. It’s not the smartest way to invest for yourself, though, as you might end up paying $15 or more in fees to buy one $30 share of stock. But if it’s a gift, then the recipient ends up with a $30 stock that might be worth $60 or more one day. That sure beats giving a sweater that never gets worn.

If you’re buying stock for yourself, then take commissions and fees into account. Try to not pay more than 2 percent or 3 percent of an investment’s value in fees. (For a $500 investment, that would be $10 or $15.) If you pay 10 percent in fees, then your investment will have to grow by 10 percent just to break even. That’s a lousy start. Learn more about how to invest very effectively with just a few dollars via direct investment plans or dividend reinvestment plans (DRIPs) at www.dripcentral.com.

Saving and matching

Many years ago my husband worked for Owens Illinois, then the premier glass company and a member of the Dow Jones industrial average. We had the maximum deducted from his pay to invest in the stock, and the company also matched 50 cents for every dollar invested.

With that and reinvestment of dividends, he took early retirement with a nice nest egg in company stock. When Kohlberg Kravis Roberts wanted to buy out the company, we were offered $70 per share for our stock, which we gladly accepted. No longer a Dow stock, Owens Illinois shares trade around $14 now. – Frankie Guinle, Memphis, Tenn.

The Fool Responds: You were smart to take advantage of company matching, netting an instant 50 percent return on your money (as long as the shares didn’t plunge in value). Too many people leave money on the table when they don’t take advantage of company matching. It’s especially attractive if the matching goes into diversified investments and not just company stock. As Enron and other debacles have reminded us, it’s risky to be invested primarily in one company.