Thank you to those who visited Give.org in 2022. We appreciate your shared interest in making informed contribution choices. In addition to our standards-based charity reporting, we provided a variety of services to help ensure your generosity was well spent. We hope you will also consider donating to BBB Wise Giving Alliance, helping us continue this work. BBB Wise Giving Alliance is a charity, tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code.

Among other things, donations help us:

• Educate Donors and Charities: During the past year, we continued our outreach to various media outlets, providing wise giving advice on such things as helping veterans organizations, donating your car to charity, or avoiding fraudulent appeals.

• Strengthen Charity Practices: Our evaluative reports on charities serve a dual function. They help donors verify charity trustworthiness by indicating which charities meet our 20 BBB Standards for Charity Accountability, and our staff counsels charities on what actions they can take to strengthen accountability. Many initial report findings are amended once charities implement recommendations resulting form our evaluation process.

• Track Public Trust for Charities: We issued a five-year review of surveys of public trust in the charitable sector, the Give.org Donor Trust Report which found an increase in “high trust” for 12 out of 13 charity categories, and the highest openness to solicitation compared to earlier years.

• Survey the Public  on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion:  We also released a Special Donor Trust report on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) that found that 41% of respondents would not donate to a charity they supported in the past upon learning that the charity’s culture tolerates discrimination against people served. 

• Produced the Heart of Giving Podcast:  We marked our third year of the Heart of Giving Podcast which involves a series of detailed discussions with charity sector leaders on various topics such as the motivations behind why we give and what drives charity executives to a career of service and giving.

• Offer GiveSafely.io: Our GiveSafely program provides a secure donation platform for BBB Accredited Charities (i.e., charities that meet BBB Charity Standards). It aims to protect donors’ personal data by the use of blockchain technology. Detailed data is only passed on to the charity with the donor’s consent. It enables donors to donate with cash or cryptocurrency.

• Publish the Wise Giving Guide Magazine: Our magazine is issued three times a year and includes cover stories on matters of donor interest as well as a summary listing of our latest charity evaluations. This publication is accessible free online, or a hard copy can be sent on request.

We plan on accomplishing even more in 2023 and would be grateful for any support you provide. Please consider donating to the BBB Wise Giving Alliance.

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Video of the Week

As part of our Building Trust Video Series, we interview Emily Lehmann, Vice President of Day and Respite Services for SOAR365 (a BBB Accredited Charity). SOAR365 is a Richmond, Virginia, based charity that seeks to create life-fulfilling opportunities for individuals with disabilities, in partnership with families. Activities include home pediatric therapy sessions for infants and toddlers; children and youth and adult day programs that develop social, behavioral, physical and cognitive skills; and weekend respite and summer camp programs.

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Heart of Giving Podcast

This week the Heart of Giving Podcast is part of our special series "Made by the Bay" sponsored by the Tipping Point Community to feature the work of people in the San Francisco Bay Area, working for the betterment of their community. This week, we talk with Wesley Alexander, founding CEO of Cobiz Richmond, Inc. Cobiz Richmond works to help businesses and organizations create relationships and connections in the Bay area.

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Recent Reports

We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include:

• TechnoServe
• Wayfinder Family Services
• Passport

Finally, remember to let us know by going to give.org/charity-inquiry if you are interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.