This sounded like a great gift so I did that for a friend but, sadly, passed the "thank you for adopting your rat, here are some information about him", he received no more information.
However, there is a way to do this right. I donate to the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an elephant conservation region in Kenya. You can sponsor an orphan baby elephant, and they send you monthly updates on the elephant's growth, role in the herd (Bull, matriarch, mini-matriarch, etc), and you can follow their progress as they are rehabilitated and released into the wild.
If you just take the money and run, that sours people on giving monthly.
However, donors can still see the impact of their gift if the digital team is diligent about providing updates for the particular animal being cared for. Sheldrick Trust does this by being highly active on social media with daily videos showing feeding times for the ophans, while the caretakers talk about individual elephants and how they're health and social skills are developing inside the herd.
They are smaller in scope but they are also way more involved with keeping people in touch with what is happening - it's good because she can see where the money is been used pretty clearly.
They also do a thing where they run a raffle where the winner gets to name the new foal/a puppy - which is a neat idea.