Giving Tuesday: Organizations to Support This Season

Tomorrow is Giving Tuesday! It’s a great day to donate to your favorite organizations to help them fund their programs into the new year. Maybe consider donating the savings you got on all those Black Friday deals?

I’ve rounded up a list of over 30 non-profits doing great work in a variety of sectors. I hope this inspires and motivates.

Baxter, one of our foster dogs we supported through the San Diego Humane Society

Below is a list of organizations and their mission statements, in their own words.

Environmental Preservation & Animal Welfare

Angel City Pit Bulls is dedicated to creating a better future for pit bulls through education, public advocacy, adoptions, and owner support.

Carbonfund is leading the fight against global warming, making it easy and affordable for any individual, business or organization to reduce & offset their climate impact and hasten the transition to a clean energy future. Carbonfund.org achieves its goals through climate change education, carbon offsets and reduction, public outreach

Dig Deep Water is a diverse community of talented change-makers who believe that every American should have clean, running water for life. In places without clean, running water or basic plumbing, Dig Deep empowers American communities to build and manage low-cost systems that bring safe, hot and cold water into homes, schools and community centers.

Friends of the Earth exposes those who endanger the health of people and the planet for corporate profit. Friends of the Earth organizes to build long-term political power and campaign to change the rules of our economic and political systems that create injustice and destroy nature.

Flint Water Fund believes everyone has a right to clean safe drinking water. The most sustainable and long-lasting source for Flint residents to access clean safe water, until all the pipes are replaced, is sink filter usage. All funds raised are for the purchase and distribution of bottled water; filtration devices not supplied by the State of Michigan; and, health access for children affected by lead.

Humane Society provides direct care to more than 100,000 animals each year through sanctuaries, veterinary programs, and emergency shelters and rescues. National and local Human Societies work to professionalize the field of animal care with education and training programs, come to the aid of animals in crisis, and attack the root cause of the problem. The Humane Society’s most important goal is to prevent animals from getting into situations of distress in the first place.

Indigenous Climate Action believes that the leadership of Indigenous peoples, as stewards, caretakers and protectors of the earth, is crucial to achieving a climate stable future for all.

The Nature Conservancy is a conservation organization working around the world to protect ecologically important lands and waters for nature and people. The Nature Conservancy addresses threats to conservation involving climate change, fire, freshwater, forests, invasive species, and marine ecosystems.

Natural Resources Defense Council combines the power of more than three million members and online activists with the expertise of some 600 scientists, lawyers, and policy advocates across the globe to ensure the rights of all people to the air, the water, and the wild.

Old Friends Senior Dog Sanctuary is a Forever Foster Home based Sanctuary in beautiful Mount Juliet, Tennessee, generally, housing approximately 120 senior dogs at the Sanctuary and others in temporary and Forever Foster Homes.

Rainforest Alliance is an international non-profit organization working at the intersection of business, agriculture, and forests to make responsible business the new normal. We are building an alliance to protect forests, improve the livelihoods of farmers and forest communities, promote their human rights, and help them mitigate and adapt to the climate crisis.

San Diego Coastkeeper is a major force in transforming the San Diego region into a leader in sustainable water management, guided by engaged and informed communities, and protective of a healthy environment that supports high biodiversity, resilient ecosystems, and thriving neighborhoods.

Project Wildlife has been dedicated to giving injured, orphaned and sick wild animals a second chance at life since 1972. Wildlife rehabilitation is the treatment and care of injured, orphaned or sick wild animals in an effort to release them back into the wild.

World Wildlife Fund works to preserve the diversity and abundance of life on Earth and the health of ecological systems by: protecting natural areas and wild populations of plants and animals, including endangered species; promoting sustainable approaches to the use of renewable natural resources; and promoting more efficient use of resources and energy and the maximum reduction of pollution.

Civil Rights

ACLU (The American Civil Liberties Union) Foundation provides legal presentation in cases involving issues of civil liberties and constitutional rights ranging from administrative hearings to trials and appeals. In addition, the Foundation educates the public as to civil liberties and constitutional rights by disseminating literature and other publications.

The Center for Reproductive Rights uses the law to advance reproductive freedom as a fundamental human right that all governments are legally obligated to protect, respect, and fulfill.

Equal Justice Initiative is committed to ending mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, challenging racial and economic injustice, and to protecting basic human rights for the most vulnerable people in American society.

National Bail Out is a Black-led and Black-centered collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers and activists building a community-based movement to support our folks and end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration.

National Women's Law Center protects and promotes equality and opportunity for women and families. NWLC champions policies and laws that help women and girls achieve their potential at every stage of their lives — at school, at work, at home, and in retirement.

Southern Poverty Law Center is internationally known for its tolerance education programs, its legal victories against white supremacists and its tracking of hate groups. The SPLC legal department fights all forms of discrimination and works to protect society's most vulnerable members, handling innovative cases that few lawyers are willing to take.

Urban Justice Center is a social justice advocacy organization that works for and empowers the most vulnerable amongst us through a combination of direct legal service, systemic advocacy, community education, and political organizing. Through our work, we enable people to surpass the barriers of poverty.

Youth

CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children) volunteers are appointed by judges to advocate for abused or neglected children, to make sure they don’t get lost in the overburdened legal and social service system or languish in inappropriate group or foster homes.

Feed the Children aims to end childhood hunger for good. They connect donors, experts, partners, leaders and communities to attack the problem from all angles.

Monarch School is the largest and most comprehensive K-12 program of its kind for homeless students in the U.S., and is a model for how a community can successfully educate homeless children to become productive citizens.

Save the Children provides a voice for children who cannot speak for themselves. Save the Children is dedicated to ensuring every child has the best chance for success. Their pioneering programs give children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm.

Health & Human Services

Compassion & Choices improves care, expands options and empowers everyone to chart their end-of-life journey.

ElderHelp of San Diego provides personalized services and information that help seniors remain independent and live with dignity in their own homes.

NARAL Pro Choice America works to support and protect, as a fundamental right and value, a woman’s freedom to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices through education, training, organizing, legal action, and public policy.

Planned Parenthood is a trusted health care provider, an informed educator, a passionate advocate, and a global partner helping similar organizations around the world. Planned Parenthood delivers vital reproductive health care, sex education, and information to millions of people worldwide.

RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) is the nation's largest anti-sexual violence organization and carries out programs to prevent sexual violence, help survivors, and ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.

Gun Violence

Everytown is a movement of Americans working together to end gun violence and build safer communities. Gun violence touches every town in America. For too long, change has been thwarted by the Washington gun lobby and by leaders who refuse to take common-sense steps that will save lives.

Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is a grassroots movement of Americans fighting for public safety measures that can protect people from gun violence. Moms Demand Action campaigns for new and stronger solutions to lax gun laws and loopholes that jeopardize the safety of our families.

Refugees

Families Belong Together works to permanently end family separation and detention, seek accountability for the harm that’s been done, and immediately reunite all families who remain torn apart at the US/Mexico border.

Miry’s List provides a mechanism for people to directly help new arrival refugee families with the things that they need to get started in their new lives – from diapers to beds to cleaning supplies and toiletries. Refugee families come to the United States seeking a safe haven from violence and persecution in their home countries. They leave behind family and friends, as well as virtually everything they own.

RAICES (Refugee & Immigrant Center for Education & Legal Services) promotes justice by providing free and low-cost legal services to underserved immigrant children, families, and refugees.

Media

Charity Navigator works to make impactful philanthropy easier for all. Charity Navigator's goal is to equip the entire philanthropic ecosystem with the tools, ratings, and information they need to make impactful investments.

NPR (National Public Radio) is an internationally acclaimed producer and distributor of noncommercial news, talk, and entertainment programming.

The Wikimedia Foundation is dedicated to encouraging the growth, development, and distribution of free, multilingual content, and to providing the full content of these wiki-based projects to the public free of charge. The Foundation operates Wikipedia, the fourth most visited website in the world.

If you’re looking to donate things rather than monetary contributions, check out this blog post where I include LOTS of resources for donating the things you may no longer want at home.

Happy donating!

I realize I’m missing some of your favorite charities. That could be because our passions don’t align, and that’s okay. Or, it could be because I’m not aware of an organization that’s doing wonderful things for the world. If you think of a charity that’s deserving of attention, please leave the name and website in the comments so folks can check them out.