Donor: Giving Tuesday
Giving Tuesday Donor Guide
Donor View. How Donors Can Give Wisely and Create Meaningful Impact Giving Tuesday donors play a central role in strengthening communities, supporting essential programs, and elevating the philanthropic ecosystem during the busiest giving week of the year. As you consider where and how to give, remember that informed generosity leads to greater impact for the causes you care about most.
Charity View. For a nonprofit perspective on how organizations prepare for Giving Tuesday, you can read the companion charity-focused article here: https://perpetualinnovation.org/nonprofits/charity-asking-for-money/
Understanding Giving Tuesday as a Donor
Giving Tuesday follows the long Thanksgiving weekend and has become a global movement dedicated to generosity. Whether supporting your favorite charities, exploring new causes, or planning year-end tax deductions, this season offers donors meaningful opportunities to contribute to long-term change.
Why Giving Tuesday Matters for Individual Donors
GivingTuesday.org describes the movement as an open-source environment that encourages giving and strengthens the global philanthropic ecosystem. Donors can find resources, participate in campaigns, and discover giving opportunities through: https://www.givingtuesday.org/participate/
Reviewing Your Charities Before You Give
Before making contributions, take a moment to review your chosen charities. Assessment organizations help donors evaluate larger nonprofits, identify strong governance practices, and understand financial and impact performance. Local and smaller nonprofits require a different approach, often using community feedback, website transparency, and IRS compliance checks.
Assessment Organizations for Large Nonprofits
(See more detail descriptions and links below.)
CharityNavigator.org ranks charities across categories and provides governance, transparency, and impact ratings. It remains a trusted first stop when exploring well-established organizations. CharityWatch.org offers in-depth evaluations of many major nonprofit organizations. GuideStar.org (Candid) provides detailed reporting on nonprofit programs, leadership, and financials. Give.org, run by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, adds a review and consumer-protection layer to the evaluation process. IRS.gov maintains a searchable database of tax-qualified charities to ensure your donation remains tax-deductible.
Evaluating Smaller or Local Charities
Smaller nonprofits are not usually rated by national assessment organizations. Instead, donors can:
- Perform a quick online search
- Review social media ratings
- Examine the organization’s website for financials, impact metrics, and privacy policies
- Verify IRS Form 990 filings, when available Best practices include transparency, impact reporting, and clear donor information.
Giving as Science and Art
Charitable giving blends informed decision-making with the joy of generosity. Treating donors as investors helps elevate the entire philanthropic ecosystem. Reviewing charities earlier in the year leads to more confident giving decisions when the season arrives.
Creating a Virtuous Giving Cycle
Consider giving where your contribution helps create or sustain a virtuous cycle. For example, early support for youth education, health, or wellness can produce lifelong benefits for individuals and ripple effects across families, communities, and economies. Pay-it-forward models further reinforce sustained impact. Give a kid a fish, feed the kid for a day; teach a kid to fish, feed the adult (and family) for a lifetime.
Conclusion
Giving Tuesday is a powerful moment for donors to support meaningful causes and contribute to long-term community growth. Informed choices, impact awareness, and generosity work together to advance Perpetual Innovation™ across the philanthropic ecosystem. Dynamic Links
- Donor Evaluation Tools and Nonprofit Guidance: https://PerpetualInnovation.org/pi-nonprofits
- Charity-Focused Giving Tuesday Guide: https://PerpetualInnovation.org/nonprofits/charity-asking-for-money/
- Official Giving Tuesday Participation Resources: https://www.givingtuesday.org/participate/
- Charity Ranking and Evaluation (Charity Navigator): https://CharityNavigator.org
Suggested GenAI Prompts
- “Summarize best practices for donors preparing for Giving Tuesday.”
- “Create a checklist donors can use to evaluate nonprofit organizations.”
- “Draft a donor message encouraging friends to support a chosen charity.”
- “Generate a social media post celebrating the joy of giving.”
- “Explain how to review a charity’s IRS Form 990 in simple terms.”
Updates: First publish in Nov. 2023 on NonprofitPlan.org, now moved to Pi-Nonprofits on the integrated Perpetualinnovation.org resource hub. Updated Nov. 20, 2025.
Perpetual Innovation™ Series of Books
The Perpetual Innovation™ series is built on the idea that every organization—large or small—can create greater impact by continuously aligning mission, strategy, and measurement in a rapidly changing world. At its core, the series provides practical tools for rapid planning, enabling any organization to clarify goals, strengthen operations, and build a sustainable cycle of improvement and innovation. Within this broader framework, two nonprofit-focused volumes offer deeper guidance for leaders, donors, and community organizations seeking to elevate their philanthropic effectiveness:
- Hall, E. B. & Hinkelman, R. M. (2022). Perpetual Innovation™: Strategic planning for nonprofits and the art of impactful giving: the gift of giving, the art of caring. ISBN: 979-8842614615 Retrieved from: Amazon.com/dp/B0B7Q1J4G6/
- Hall, E. B. (2023). Perpetual Innovation™: Club management workbook focusing on the most impactful giving. ISBN: 979-8859024810 Amazon.com/dp/B0CGXHB31Y
- Pi Books & More
Assessment Organizations
The assessment organizations help people review and evaluate large(r) charities. CharityNavigator is always a good place to start. (See Books and More.)
- CharityNavigator.org ranks charities within categories. This is the most important site for someone considering which causes to select for charitable giving. Ranks larger Nonprofits. Encompass® rating to rate governance and transparency on impact. Great starting point.
- CharityWatch.org rates many bigger nonprofit organizations. Great starting point.
- GuideStar.org does a deeper dive into the non-profit, reporting, officers and programs. Large organizations including many in US and UK. Good starting point. (Candid is the umbrella organization for the Foundation Center and GuideStar, offering more than 88 years of service related to nonprofits.)
- Give.org, by the BBB Wise Giving Alliance, provides a Better Business Bureau type of list Nonprofit organizations. It also provides a BBB-type of environment for reviews and complaints. (As with BBB, use this customer complaint feature carefully. A very large national or international organization might have thousands of complaints but only a tiny fraction of all customers served.)
- IRS.gov has a searchable database of charities that qualify for charitable tax deductions. Since most people like the added benefit of a tax deduction from their charitable giving, Non-Profits must remain vigilant in maintaining their tax-exempt status as well as their qualifications as a charitable organization. (But, remember, the IRS filings are always a year or more behind. This year’s tax forms are for last year, and organizations can defer filing for months. The IRS takes time, usually 3-years, before removing an organizations tax-exempt status for non-filing. Smaller orgs don’t have to provide as much information.)
- Canada. Charity Intelligence (Ci) Canada: https://www.charityintelligence.ca
(Wikipedia on Charity Intelligence Canada.) - Charity Commission of England & Wales (register and information): https://www.gov.uk/charity-commission
- United Kingdom Charities: GuideStar.org (Candid) UK (and other countries)
- An overview article of Charity Assessment organizations on Wikipedia (current article, no editorial issues).
Update Nov 20, 2025 from Nov 2023.
