Giving Tuesday Crowdfunding: What to Check Before You Give

Before you give to a crowdfunding campaign this GivingTuesday, check three things: whether the money goes to a registered charity or to an individual, whether the organization is actually tax-exempt, and what the platform's fees and protections cover. Those checks take about five minutes and decide whether your donation is deductible, recoverable, and going where the page says it is. GivingTuesday 2026 falls on December 1, and the organizers' participation page frames it as the start of a five-day "Generosity Week" running December 1–5, ending on International Volunteer Day.

That is a long stretch of appeals arriving at once, which is exactly the condition that makes a rushed donation easy.

Verification note: Program terms and availability can change. This page was checked against linked sources on November 13, 2026.

Is this a charity or a person?

This is the first and most consequential question, because it changes the tax treatment entirely. The Federal Trade Commission's guidance on crowdfunding donations states that donations to individuals through crowdfunding are never tax deductible — and that this holds even when the organizer says they will pass the money along to a charity. The FTC's practical advice is to check where a link actually goes before you give.

A social post, a text message, and a shared link all look the same whether they lead to a registered nonprofit's page or to a personal campaign set up by someone you have never met. Giving to an individual is a legitimate choice. It is just a gift, not a charitable contribution, and it carries none of the oversight that comes with a registered organization.

Confirming tax-exempt status without a false negative

If you want the deduction, the IRS points donors to the Pub. 78 dataset inside Tax Exempt Organization Search. Search the organization's legal name, which is often not the name on the fundraising page.

Two limitations matter, and both cut toward caution rather than panic. The IRS notes that an appearance on the separate Auto-Revocation List is not conclusive, because the agency may have reinstated the organization since the revocation date. And the IRS's search guidance notes that churches meeting 501(c)(3) requirements remain eligible to receive deductible contributions even when they do not appear in the tool at all.

So the tool is a strong positive signal and a weak negative one. A hit confirms status; a miss means you need another answer, not that the group is illegitimate.

State registration adds a second record

Several states require charities soliciting their residents to register and file financial reports, and those filings are public. California's Attorney General requires charities and professional fundraisers soliciting in the state to register and file annual financial reports, searchable through the Registry of Charities — while cautioning that registration is not an endorsement. New York's Attorney General gives donors the same advice through charitiesnys.com.

Read "registration is not an endorsement" literally. It tells you the organization filed paperwork and submitted financials; it does not tell you the money is well spent. The useful part is the annual financial report, which shows what the group actually took in and spent.

Spotting a copied or rushed campaign

The FTC's charity-giving guidance recommends reverse image searching the photos on a crowdfunding page. If the same images turn up on another campaign or under different names, walk away. The same guidance warns that scammers manufacture urgency so donors have no time to research — a pressure that compounds during a concentrated giving week.

A campaign that still needs your money tomorrow is a campaign you can check tonight. A short pre-donation pass:

• Reverse image search the main photo and any photos of people
• Confirm whether the recipient is an organization or an individual
• Look up the legal name in Tax Exempt Organization Search
• Check the state charity registry where you or the charity are located
• Read the campaign's spending plan for specifics, not sentiment

What the fees and the platform guarantee actually cover

Fees come out before the organization sees the money. GoFundMe's pricing page lists no platform fee for US organizers but a per-donation transaction fee of 2.2% + $0.30, typically running 2.2%–2.5% + $0.30 depending on payment method, with an extra 1% for American Express, no fee on ACH, and 5% per recurring donation. The donor "tip" shown at checkout is explicitly optional.

The FTC notes in its crowdfunding guidance that giving through a charity's own website minimizes the chance of fees being taken out of your donation. If deductibility and full value both matter to you, the charity's own donation page is the cleaner route. Platform protection is narrower than its name suggests.

GoFundMe's Giving Guarantee covers donors to individual fundraisers when funds are misused relative to the stated purpose or never reach the beneficiary — but it excludes claims filed more than one year after the donation, donations made off-platform, donations from donor-advised funds, and gifts to your own fundraiser. GoFundMe decides in its "sole and absolute discretion" whether misuse occurred, and states the guarantee is not a warranty against fraud.

How big the day is, and where to report a problem

The GivingTuesday Data Commons estimated $4.0 billion given by U.S. donors on GivingTuesday 2025, up 13% over 2024, with 38.1 million total participants — up 6% — of whom 19.1 million gave money. Those are modeled estimates drawn from roughly 60 partner platforms including PayPal, Stripe, Blackbaud, GoFundMe and Visa, not a census of every donation.

Treat the number as a measure of attention rather than precision. Billions of dollars moving through online payment pages in a single day is also what draws campaigns worth a second look. If something goes wrong, the FTC's crowdfunding guidance says to report a suspected scam to the platform first, then file the organizer's details at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Report it inside a year if the campaign was on a platform with a time-limited donor guarantee — after that window, the platform's own remedy is off the table regardless of what happened.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I deduct a donation to a crowdfunding campaign for a family in need?

No. The FTC states that donations to individuals through crowdfunding are never tax deductible, even when the organizer says they will forward the money to a charity.

The charity isn't in the IRS search tool. Does that mean it isn't legitimate?

Not necessarily. The IRS notes that churches meeting 501(c)(3) requirements can receive deductible contributions without appearing in Tax Exempt Organization Search, so a miss calls for another check rather than a conclusion.

Does state registration mean a charity is well run?

No. California's Attorney General explicitly cautions that registration is not an endorsement; its value is the annual financial report filed alongside it.

How much of my donation reaches the organizer on GoFundMe?

US organizers pay no platform fee, but a transaction fee of roughly 2.2%–2.5% + $0.30 applies per donation, with no fee on ACH and 5% per recurring gift. The tip prompt at checkout is optional.