When is the best time to donate to charity? Really, the best time is any time — though, many people are in a particularly generous mood around the holiday season.
And, as personal finance reporters, we'd be remiss not to remind you that if you're planning to itemize your taxes, you only have until the end of December to make a charitable donation that's eligible for a tax deduction.
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There are enough reliable charitable platforms out there that you can find one for any of your donating interests or needs. Below, we rounded up some of the best charitable giving and donation platforms to empower your season of giving. Read on to learn more about our picks, and see our methodology below.
Best for global health giving: GiveWell
Who's this for? GiveWell has a comprehensive research process for selecting and recommending charity programs on its platform. Their process involves independently gathering data, analyzing each program's cost effectiveness, interviewing staff and conducting site visits, reviewing past spending and reviewing program data from charities. Its goal is to recommend charities where each dollar donation can go the furthest when it comes to making a difference. Because of this, GiveWell mostly recommends charities focused on global health and poverty.
Standout benefits: GiveWell doesn't collect fees from donations and doesn't receive money from charities featured on its site.
GiveWell
Cost
None, but standard bank transaction processing fees may apply
Standout features
Conducts a rigorous research process to select charities to feature on an annual basis, provides research publicly, features their top charity picks on their website
Pros
- Doesn't take a cut of charity donations and doesn't charge charity programs to be featured on its website
- Funded by donors who choose to directly fund operations
- Has an "excessive assets" policy that allows them to use direct donor funds to provide grants to charities if GiveWell has exceeded a certain level of assets
- Makes charity research publicly accessible
Cons
- Recommends only a few charity programs annually, which can actually be seen as a pro if you want to make sure you donate where your dollar can truly go the furthest, but a drawback if you're looking to be exposed to as many charities in the space as possible
Best for recurring donations: Daffy
Who's this for? Daffy makes it easy for users to decide how much they want to donate to charities per year and then set up small recurring contributions until they hit their donation goal. Users can schedule weekly, monthly or quarterly donations. The platform also helps you get ready for tax season by adding all tax-deductible donations to a personal contributions report that remains updated throughout the year.
Standout benefits: The Daffy platform can also help you set up and manage different types of tax-deductible contributions, including cash, stocks and even cryptocurrencies.
Daffy
Cost
Free for fund balances of up to $100; $3/month for unlimited fund balance; $5/month for family plan; $20/month for benefactor plan; $40/month for philanthropist plan
Standout features
Set up recurring donations to almost every public U.S. charity, create campaigns for your favorite charities, organize charitable tax receipts, contribute up to $25,000/year through bank, ApplePay™, debit/credit card, stock, ETF, mutual funds, crypto or DAF transfers, lets you donate stock, ETFs, crypto and more
Pros
- Offers a completely free plan
- Family plan allows you to add children, grandchildren and other family to recommend donations from your fund
- Can donate assets other than cash, like stocks and cryptocurrency
- Set up recurring donations on a weekly, monthly or quarterly basis
- No surcharge on your first, one-time credit card contribution up to $1,000; after, there is a 2.9% surcharge for card processing fees
- Benefactor plans lets you create a custom portfolio of investments
Cons
- Different pricing tiers have different annual contribution caps
Best for discovering charities: Charity Navigator
Who's this for? Charity Navigator is a nonprofit helping you discover charities that align with your passions and values. The platform features and rates over 225,000 charities and uses data from the IRS, partners and charities themselves to devise ratings. Charity Navigator features several categories of charities, including but not limited to celebrity-rated charities, the most followed charities, SNAP support, disaster recovery and many causeway funds.
Standout benefits: Charity Navigator offers a beta version of their new AI charity search tool called Horizon AI. You can use the AI search tool to help you find charities that meet your needs and are informed by data on your past donations.
Best for crowdfunding a donation: GoFundMe
Who's this for? GoFundMe is well-known for letting individuals crowdfund money for various causes, including personal ones. But many platform users crowdfund for charities by running campaigns to raise money from their network. If you're hoping to make a larger donation to a charity of your choosing, it's usually best to indicate on your campaign page that funds will go directly to your desired charity.
Standout benefits: GoFundMe offers educational resources, like a blog, to help your fundraising campaign go smoothly. Users can get advice on everything, from how to write a fundraising story that inspires donations, to explainers on family donor-advised funds.
Best for donating to classroom projects: DonorsChoose
Who's this for? DonorsChoose is a charitable giving platform that's focused on donating to educational projects and causes for specific schools and classrooms. Projects range from helping schools afford items for extracurricular clubs, to helping teachers purchase art supplies.
Standout benefits: DonorsChoose works with organizations that are willing to match donations raised for certain projects at no extra cost to individuals.
DonorsChoose
Cost
Third-party payment processing fee of 1.5%; suggested 15% optional donation to support DonorsChoose
Standout features
Highlights classroom projects that need donations, works with over 20 vendors to get discounts and the best pricing available on items needed for each project, can set up monthly donations
Pros
- Helps you discover donation opportunities specific to classroom and school projects and needs
- Partners with other organizations to match funds raised for some projects
- Special spotlight on equity-focused projects meant to directly impact historically underfunded classrooms
- Can set up monthly recurring donations; recurring donations start at $15/month but you can also specify another amount you'd like to give
- Donors can receive updates and photos from the classrooms their donations help
Cons
- Suggested 15% donation to support DonorsChoose, which is optional but it is automatically included so you'll need to opt out before you place your donation
FAQs
Do you have to report GoFundMe money to the IRS?
According to GoFundMe's website, personal GoFundMe donations are not considered taxable income. They are instead considered personal gifts. If it's business- or service-related, or if donors receive something in return, these funds can be taxable.
Which donation platform is the best?
The best donation platform depends on where you're interested in giving money. Consider a platform like Charity Navigator if you need inspiration on where to donate.
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Why trust CNBC Select?
At CNBC Select, our mission is to provide our readers with high-quality service journalism and comprehensive consumer advice so they can make informed decisions with their money. Every charitable giving article is based on rigorous reporting by our team of expert writers and editors with extensive knowledge of donation platforms. While CNBC Select earns a commission from affiliate partners on many offers and links, we create all our content without input from our commercial team or any outside third parties, and we pride ourselves on our journalistic standards and ethics. See our methodology for more information on how we choose the best charitable giving and donation platforms.
Our methodology
To determine the best charitable giving and donation platforms, CNBC Select analyzed dozens of online platforms. We categorized our picks by best for global health giving, best for recurring donations, best for discovering charities, best for crowdfunding a donation and best for donating to classroom projects. While we may gauge these platforms as some of the most effective, we are not directing anyone to give money or to use.
When determining our picks, we considered factors like:
- Charity verifiability
- Pricing, where applicable
- Platform fees
- Transaction/processing fees
- Administration fees, where applicable
- Customer service support offered
- Customer reviews
- Research methodologies
Terms and fees are subject to change.
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