Philanthropy

How to Do Good on Giving Tuesday


As we brace for the holiday barrage, family vacations, and too many shopping holidays to count, it’s also the season for giving gifts to others and celebrating the good old philanthropy that makes Americans the most generous people on Earth.

There’s no better way to give back than donating to the charities of your choice on this Giving Tuesday—and the Capital Research Center is here to answer those burning philanthropy questions.

So what is Giving Tuesday, anyway?

The global giving tradition started in 2012 as a way to help fund nonprofits focusing on a range of causes across America and the world. And since then, it’s raised over $1 billion for charities of every stripe.

But before you go giving in earnest, you’ll want to consider a few tools we use to investigate charities.

ProPublica is a leading database on nonprofit financial information, most notably groups’ IRS Form 990 statements. A glance can reveal any nonprofit’s location, board of directors, leadership, mission statement, tax exemption status, and financial state, including its assets and annual budgets.

InfluenceWatch is CRC’s growing encyclopedia on over 7,000 public policy influencers and an excellent tool for givers to connect the dots on what causes and groups that charities fund. At InfluenceWatch.org, we’re building a database on the connections between charities, foundations, politically active firms, activists, and influencers—and how they use money to affect the political process. With our system, you can track who funds who, view the latest nonprofit IRS financial statements available, and see how key political players connect with other groups.

InfluenceWatch is designed to help you follow the money—sometimes with surprising results.

The March for Science sure sounds serious, doesn’t it? In reality, this so-called science advocacy group really pushes left-wing policies on immigration, abortion, and environmentalism—including the infamous Green New Deal. That’s why the march is backed by the likes of Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, the Sierra Club, and presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.

Ever heard of Interfaith Worker Justice? Far from promoting that old-time religion, it’s a thin coat of faith over a leftist lobby shop pushing Big Labor’s favorite policies. The group backs the SEIU’s $15/hour minimum wage campaign and is funded by a slew of liberal funders, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, the Ford Foundation, and Oxfam America.

International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War is a group with a long name but a simple goal: total nuclear disarmament and the end of nuclear energy. While it promotes itself as a collective of concerned doctors, IPPNW was founded at the height of the Cold War by two professors from the U.S. and the Soviet Union. Since then, it’s demanded America unilaterally disarm in order to “prevent nuclear war.”

These are just a few examples in a growing trove of nonprofit information you can use to make sure your money goes to a cause you support, and not one with the best-sounding name. Check out InfluenceWatch.org today, and have a happy Giving Tuesday!

Hayden Ludwig

Hayden Ludwig is the Director of Policy Research at Restoration of America. He was formerly Senior Investigative Researcher at Capital Research Center. Ludwig is a native of Orange County, California,…
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