AI & the Future of Charitable Giving

There is a Donor Trust Gap. Can AI Help Close It?

Our 2024 Donor Trust Report reveals that, while most people say it is highly important to trust charities before giving, only 22% of people highly trust charities. The charitable landscape is facing a ‘generosity crisis’ where the number of households giving to charity is declining. Meanwhile, faced with scams and misinformation, donors are left confused and wary about where to give.

BBB Wise Giving Alliance recognizes this urgent trust crisis. We believe thoughtfully applied technology can help restore donor confidence and revitalize philanthropy.

Charting the Future for Social Good

Earlier this year, BBB Wise Giving Alliance partnered with the Institute for the Future (IFTF), GoFundMe, and The Salvation Army to convene charity leaders at "The Ten-Year Forecast 2025-2035: Charting Your Future for Social Good" event in New York City. Leaders discussed how forecasting tools and predictive insights can support nonprofit missions amid the rapid emergence of Artificial Intelligence and other societal transformations. Key discussions explored AI’s potential to transform resource management, communication, and service delivery in the charitable sector, while emphasizing the importance of aligning these powerful technologies with human values, empathy, and accountability.

Read more about this event in our latest Wise Giving Guide →

How Can AI Help the Charitable Sector?

AI technology offers transformative potential for the charitable sector; used responsibly, it can help respond directly to donor needs in a way that is transparent, reliable, and highly personalized.

Here are a few ways AI can meaningfully benefit charitable giving:

• Improved Transparency: Providing donors easy access to information about a charity’s mission, programs, and BBB Accreditation status.
• Personalized Experiences: Allowing donors to discover charities and causes that align deeply with their individual values and interests.
• Instant Giving Advice: Offering quick, trustworthy answers to donors’ questions and providing engaging references and resources, ensuring wise giving choices exactly when they matter.
• Combating Misinformation & Scams: Providing access to rigorous data and verified sources to reduce vulnerability to questionable solicitations.
• Empowering Charities Digitally: Enabling charities, even those with limited budgets, to demonstrate their trustworthiness and connect meaningfully with donors.

Introducing AskGive: BBB Wise Giving Alliance's AI-Powered Giving Advisor

Drawing on BBB Wise Giving Alliance’s 100-year legacy of trust, rigorous charity evaluations, and deep commitment to transparency, we’ve developed AskGive: a conversational AI advisor designed to provide trusted, personalized giving guidance instantly.

AskGive empowers users to give confidently, transforming inspiration into action by connecting you directly to information on trustworthy charities and reliable giving advice. When you use AskGive, you experience:

• Personalized responses: tailored specifically to your charitable interests and values.
• A conversational, intuitive interface: making asking for advice and charity exploration easy, engaging, and informative.
• In-depth advice: directly linking you to comprehensive standards-based charity evaluation data, clear giving tips, and up-to-date BBB Accreditation statuses.
• Answers you can trust: answers built exclusively on charity-submitted, expert-verified charity data and giving advice backed by 100 years of experience.

Try AskGive →

A Bold Response to the Generosity Crisis

At BBB Wise Giving Alliance, our mission is to strengthen public confidence in charities by promoting wise giving and trustworthy charity practices.

AskGive represents our boldest commitment yet. The tool builds off our legacy of providing trusted standards-based charity evaluation information to donors via print media (our Wise Giving Guide) and digitally (via our online charity reports). AskGive leverages AI technology ethically, responsibly, and effectively. The tool's answers draw exclusively from our charity-submitted expert-verified data and library of donor resources to empower users to make their own wise giving decisions.

Carefully Tested. Responsibly Built.

We know that trust must be earned, and AskGive was thoughtfully created and carefully tested. After a year-long beta period, during which thousands of donors tested the tool and we received invaluable stakeholder feedback, AskGive emerged stronger, smarter, and more responsive.

With technical support from our trusted partner Handshake, we’ve built a secure, scalable, and effective platform that's ready for donors nationwide.

We welcome you to review AskGive’s About Page, Frequently Asked Questions and Terms of Use for more information.