I don't mean "adoptions" as in bringing home a dog but rather sponsoring a wild animal or a zoo animal. I've adopted from Save The Manatee and Defenders of Wildlife, and I wanted another from Defenders, but their website is apparently having technical difficulties, and the order isn't happening.

So which adoption programs to you recommend?

Ooooo! You're from Minnesota! Let me direct you to A Rotta Love Plus, Animal Ark, and The Windmill Animal Rescue.

A Rotta Love Plus is a rescue that is near and dear to my heart, I've been involved with them for about a year and a half now. There is no central facility, they house dogs in private foster homes. In general they don't take owner surrenders (although there are exceptions to this), but pull dogs out of St. Paul and Minneapolis Animal Control. They just took on 11 dogs from areas devestated by Hurricane Katrina and are in desparate need of funds to provide these dogs medical care. All of them need to be spayed/neutered plus most of them have various types of medical problems.
It's a smaller organization, it doesn't get the attention that the Humane Society or Animal Ark does, but it's rapidly growing and becoming more and more vocal in the fight against breed specific legislation. More info here: www.arottalove.org

Animal Ark is a no kill shelter located in Hastings. As far as shelters go, it's one of the least depressing that I've been in. They take on dogs of any breed, cats and rabbits. In general the staff is dedicated to what they do. My fiance worked as the cat guy there for a while and loved it (but didn't love the 4:30am drive down to hastings on saturdays and sundays). They're helping out in the effort to save pets from areas damaged by all the recent hurricanes. here's there website: www.animalarkshelter.org

The Windmill Animal Rescue is run by a friend of mine in New Market, MN. It's where I get all of my cat food. The owner will take in any animal, whether adoptable or not. It's run out of a big old barn in the "middle" of town, which is one of my favorite places to go on a saturday morning. The cats aren't kept in cages, they run around loose. There are feral cats outside. Every animal is spayed or neutered (even the feral cats). Cats take even the slightest interest in crossing the street are taken to the owners house in the country where there is less traffic. They'll take in any sort of critter, but because it's such a rural area, people usually drop cats off there. It really is a toss up to see who is pickier when it comes to potential adopters, The Windmill or A Rotta Love.
They don't have a website, you can PM me if you want their address. I'd like to encourage you to visit the place for yourself. Especially if you have to buy pet food, I prefer to go there than to the huge pet food stores, since it's small and locally owned.
This website is for the owner's dog Ivan, who up until very recently was in a wheelchair type thing. Visiting the site will help generate money for the rescue. http://handicappedpets.com/gallery/ivan11/#june2005

Thanks, I'll check those out, but what I was really looking for in this situation are organizations where you can do the "adopt an animal" thing -- either an individual animal or a species.

Adopt a hunchback!

http://www.whalecenter.org/adopt.htm

A manatee:

http://www.savethemanatee.org/

A bear:

http://www.defenders.org/adopt/bear/

The defenders of wildlife site also has a drop down menu of several other animals to "adopt". You can send them as gifts as well and it includes a certificate of adoption and a plush animal. I think my Xmas shopping is done!

I just adopted a turkey from Farm Sanctuary (http://www.adoptaturkey.org). They have a "Celebration FOR the Turkeys" around Thanksgiving every year.