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GiveSendGo Charities · Giver Army
Be the Crowd
More than a third of the year's online giving happens in the next nine weeks. Most of it will go to organizations people already know. Somewhere in there is a person nobody has shown up for yet.
The season runs from now through December 31. GivingTuesday falls on December 1 and opens Global Generosity Week. This page is the map: why give, why now, and why through a crowd.
01 · The case
Why give, why now, why this way
It isn't subtraction
The arithmetic of generosity looks like loss, and the research keeps finding the opposite. Across 136 countries, rich and poor alike, spending on others tracks with greater happiness. People who can see a charity making a local difference are twice as likely to give and roughly three times as generous as a share of income.
And givers consistently underestimate what their gift does. Asked to predict how good a recipient would feel on a −5 to +5 scale, givers said 2.7. Recipients reported 3.5. A lot of generosity never happens for a reason that is simply false.
Aknin et al. (2013) · CAF World Giving Report 2026 · Kumar & Epley (2022)
The window is real
37% of annual online revenue arrives in December. 10% lands in the final week. 4%on December 31 alone. This is not manufactured urgency — it's where the year actually happens.
And 2026 added something: for the first time in years, standard-deduction filers can deduct charitable gifts again. Gifts made by December 31 are the first ever to count under the new rule.
M+R Benchmarks 2026 · 2026 federal tax provisions
Through a crowd
Belonging predicts generosity better than income does: people with strong community ties give 1.7% of income against 0.6% for weak ties. And monthly givers are still active a year later at 71%, against 24% for a one-time online gift.
A campaign stalled at 3% isn't a market failure. It's someone facing the hardest week of their life without a crowd. Somebody has to be theirs.
CAF World Giving Report 2026 · M+R Benchmarks 2026
02 · The data
What December actually looks like
Figure 1 · Where the year’s online giving lands
The money is growing. The number of people giving it is not.
U.S. giving hit a record in 2025 while the count of people giving fell for a fifth straight year, and the only segment still contracting was the smallest — people giving $100 or less. A season that produces record December revenue from a shrinking number of households is not a healthy season. It's a concentrated one. Which is exactly why the part of this that matters to us isn't the total. It's how many people are standing in the crowd when it's over.
03 · The calendar
Nine weeks, five beats
Figure 2 · The giving season, 2026
04 · December 1
Give Time
Most organizations will treat December 1 as the loudest fundraising day of the year. We're going to do something slightly different, because the data and the theme point the same direction.
The fastest-growing forms of generosity aren't financial. On GivingTuesday 2025, financial participation grew 3%. Goods giving grew 4%. Volunteering grew 20%. Advocacy grew 26%. People are showing up in ways that cost time rather than money, and they're doing it faster every year.
That maps onto how this movement already works. Of the four things a member of the Giver Army does — give, pray, share, recruit — three cost nothing but time.
You can be somebody’s crowd on December 1 without spending anything.
Pray for a name. Share a fundraiser that's stalled. Bring one person in. Nominate a need you've seen with your own eyes. The gift matters — but the crowd is what the person on the other end actually feels, and a crowd is made of people, not transactions. Give time on December 1. The rest of December will take care of itself.
05 · Where it goes
Two funds carrying this season
Showing up in the first 24 hours
Disasters don't wait for a grant cycle. The Day One Relief Fund exists so that resources are already in position when the worst day arrives.
- Day One — mobilized within 24 hours.
- The first 72 hours hold the most acute need.
- A nine-day focus window while attention is high.
- And we stay. Recovery runs years, not news cycles — the gap between relief ending and recovery starting is where most people get dropped.
Pre-positioned, deployed, replenished, and reported — with receipts at both ends: when funds come in, and as they go out. More about the fund →
Standing behind a capable, crowdless generation
The Next Gen Fund mobilizes resources for kids, students and young leaders who are capable but crowdless — and shares the hope of Jesus through generosity they can see, touch, and one day pass on.
- Learning & opportunity — classrooms, laptops, scholarships and skills that open the next door.
- Recovery & freedom — prevention and recovery for young people, including the pull of sports gambling.
- Sports, camp & belonging — fees, gear, travel and camp access, so kids find a team that believes in them.
- Mission & formation — discipleship and travel for young leaders called to go.
You give; our team validates every need and grants to qualified organizations and vetted channels; you see where it landed.
How gifts and preferences work
Gifts to GiveSendGo Charities are unrestricted. You're welcome to tell us which needs move you — cause preferences are advisory, and we honor them to the best of our ability — but GiveSendGo Charities retains full discretion over grantmaking, as the law requires of a public charity. Members receive a quarterly impact report.
06 · The 2026 rules
Your giving counts again
For most of the last decade the charitable deduction only worked if you itemized — and after 2017, barely one in ten Americans did. That changed this year.
General information about U.S. federal tax law, not tax advice. Figures are for the 2026 tax year, reported on returns filed in 2027. State rules differ. Talk to your own tax professional. The full breakdown is in The 2026 Giving Guide.
| If you… | 2026 | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Take the standard deduction | $1,000 / $2,000 | New this year.Deduct cash gifts to qualifying public charities without itemizing — single / married filing jointly. No carryforward, so there's no benefit to overshooting in one year. |
| Itemize | 0.5% floor | Only giving above 0.5% of adjusted gross income is deductible. At $200,000 AGI, the first $1,000 produces nothing. |
| Are in the 37% bracket | 35% cap | The tax value of itemized deductions is capped at 35%. A $1,000 gift saves $350, not $370. |
| Are 70½ or older | $111,000 | Qualified charitable distributions direct from an IRA. Counts toward your RMD, never enters taxable income — so neither the floor nor the cap touches it. |
| Give $250 or more at once | Receipt | You need a written acknowledgment from the charity for any single gift of $250 or more. |
A deduction is not a reason to give.
It's a tool for stewarding what you already decided to give. Nobody should start giving because of a line on a tax form — the research on what happens when a moral act gets priced is not encouraging. But if you're already generous, knowing the rules means more of what you set aside reaches a person instead of being left on the table.
07 · Participation
Four ways to be the crowd
Join the Giver Army
Carry a name
Move a stalled fundraiser
Bring one person in
A crowd for the crowdless
Be the Crowd.
Thirty-seven percent of the year's giving happens in the next nine weeks. Somewhere in it is a person nobody has shown up for yet. Bring the heart — every need validated, every grant direct to a real person, proof you can see.
Join the Giver ArmyGifts are made to and stewarded by GiveSendGo Charities, Inc., a 501(c)(3) public charity. GiveSendGo Charities, Inc. is a separate legal entity from GiveSendGo.com LLC. Giver Army contributions are unrestricted; cause preferences are advisory and GiveSendGo Charities retains full charitable discretion over their use. Nothing on this page is tax, legal or financial advice.
08 · Sources
Where each number came from
- M+R Benchmarks 2026 — December share of annual online revenue (37%), final week (10%), December 31 (4%), online revenue growth (+15%), monthly and one-time giver retention.
- GivingTuesday — 2025 results ($4.0B, 38.1M participants, participation growth by type) and Global Generosity Week 2026 (Dec 1–5, “Give Time,” International Year of Volunteers).
- Giving USA 2026 and the AFP Fundraising Effectiveness Project 2025 — record giving against a fifth consecutive annual decline in the number of donors.
- Aknin, L., et al. (2013). Prosocial spending and well-being: cross-cultural evidence for a psychological universal. JPSP.
- Kumar, A., & Epley, N. (2022). A little good goes an unexpectedly long way. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.
- Flynn, F., & Bohns, V. (2008). If you need help, just ask. JPSP.
- CAF World Giving Report 2026 — community ties and giving as a share of income; visible local impact.
- America's Charities, citing Double the Donation — unclaimed employer matching funds; donor response to matching.
- GoFundMe 2025 Year in Help Report — fundraiser shares.
- 2026 U.S. federal charitable provisions; IRS Revenue Procedure 2025-32.