My favorite time of year is upon us. Yes, I love the Thanksgiving fellowship and the start of the winter season, but early December is also a time to celebrate another worthy, charitable holiday: Giving Tuesday.
Giving Tuesday 2025 is today, Dec. 2, and its marks a day for people across the US to give back to their communities, support local organizations, help those in need and generally do good. The Giving Tuesday movement started in 2012 and has since raised billions of dollars for nonprofit organizations that support at-risk youth, the environment, animal shelters, food insecurity and many more important social causes.
While donations are always encouraged and important for nonprofits to continue working in communities, there’s many more ways to participate in Giving Tuesday than just sending cash. If you’re looking for ways to pay it forward, here’s what you can do for your community on #GivingTuesday.
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Share your skills
Donations go beyond just money — it also includes your skills and time. Offering up your expertise is sometimes more beneficial than simply writing a check.
You can get started sharing your skills by leveraging your professional expertise or experience in fields such as marketing, accounting, programming, law, teaching and health care, offering your services pro bono. For instance, an accountant can help file a nonprofit organization’s taxes or a health care provider can volunteer at a clinic for free. This will allow you to contribute directly to nonprofit organizations, community groups or local initiatives without merely sending money.
Many organizations accept more than monetary donations and need essentials, such as canned or dry foods, and personal hygiene items.
Donate essentials
You may not always have time to donate skills, but you can always donate essential items if you want to do more than donate cash funds. Many organizations — such as women’s shelters, children’s hospitals, animal shelters — are usually accepting canned foods, clothes, blankets, personal hygiene products, water and other essential items. You can even donate blood, which is especially critical since the American Red Cross declared an emergency blood shortage in July 2024 and is still low in supply.
If you’re interested in donating goods, you can begin by calling organizations to ask what they may be accepting or needing most critically. Anything you offer is sure to be appreciated.
Volunteer in your community
There’s likely a social cause or organization that means a lot to you. A great way to support your community and its important initiatives is to volunteer.
If you have an organization in mind, call or email them to ask if they’re interested in taking you on as a volunteer. Or if they have a volunteer program, like many hospitals and animal shelters do, keep track of the volunteer application and onboarding process via its website.
If you’re not sure where you’d like to volunteer, I suggest you do a quick Google search for local nonprofits or organizations. You can also use VolunteerMatch to find volunteer opportunities in your town.
Most towns, especially bigger cities, need volunteers to pick up trash, work at soup kitchens and homeless shelters, clean at animal shelters and much more. Any community group you choose is a start to helping out those in need and making a difference in your community.
A great way to support your community and its important initiatives is to volunteer.
Spread kindness
Being kind to those around you should be a daily occurrence, but Giving Tuesday can be a day to be intentional about the acts of kindness you want to perform. This can include holding doors, paying for the next person in line’s coffee or lunch, giving a compliment or asking someone how their day is going. A simple act of kindness can be essential to letting someone know they’re cared about.
Before you act
If you are going to make a donation, be sure to first vet the organization or charity. You can use a platform, such as Charity Navigator, which rates charities based on their financial health, accountability and transparency. Charity Navigator assigns a “Give With Confidence” designation to the organizations it deems safe to donate to.
Before you donate anywhere, you should make sure that a given charity aligns with your values and that the donation is being used in ways you’d like.
