As this Wise Giving Wednesday is the last one posted in 2020, we want to take this opportunity to thank all those who visited Give.org this year to help them make more informed contribution decisions. In turn, we hope your generosity will extend to us as well as BBB Wise Giving Alliance is a charitable organization itself. Please consider making a donation to support our work.  

Contributions help us accomplish the following, among other things: 

• Public Outreach on Charity Issues: During 2020, we conducted outreach to various media outlets to provide wise giving advice on such things as charities addressing coronavirus, disaster appeals, and alerting both donors and charities to fraudulent communications seeking to take advantage of heartfelt generosity.
• In-Depth Charity Evaluations: The evaluative reports on nationally-soliciting charities produced by BBB Wise Giving Alliance share help donors verify charity trustworthiness by indicating which charities meet our 20 BBB Standards for Charity Accountability. In addition, BBB WGA staff counsels charities on what actions they can take to address concerns we bring to their attention. Many initial report conclusions are amended after the charity implements the recommended changes.
• Revised Give.org Website Launched: A newly designed version of the Give.org website was launched in July 2020 which included new features created to address the needs of three audiences: the donating public, charities and media.
• GiveSafely.io Launched: BBB WGA also launched a new donation platform, GiveSafely.io that provides a safe and transparent space for connecting donors with participating BBB Accredited Charities that were evaluated by BBB WGA. The site enables a donor to contribute to these charities while ensuring that personal information is secured by the blockchain and passed on to charities with donors’ consent.  
• Special Report on Coronavirus and Charitable Sector: In April 2020, BBB WGA distributed survey results that showed the anticipated initial impact on coronavirus on charitable giving. Most charities believed their 2020 revenues would be lower than expected this year while some donors had intentions to give more during 2020.
• Webinars and Intersessions:  This year, BBB WGA produced a series of webinars and virtual meetings (Intersessions) with charities. Among other things, this enabled charity executives to share information on coping strategies with coronavirus and also provided forums to discuss a variety of accountability and related issues to assist their operations.  
• Give.org Donor Trust Survey Study: We issued the third edition of the Give.org Donor Trust Report which further explored giving issues related to the pandemic as well as a three-year retrospective on BBB WGA Donor Trust Surveys. One of the findings was: the importance that donors place on trust before they give to charity has eroded for each of the past three years. Between December 2017 and August 2020, the portion of participants who place “high importance” on trust dropped from 73.0% to 63.6%.
• Sexual Harassment and Charities: We released the results of a special report on Sexual Harassment and the Charitable Sector. The report provides the results of a survey of 2,100 adults across the United States and more than 1,000 adults in Canada, exploring how donors react to allegations of sexual harassment involving a charity or house of worship. Among other things, the survey found that 22% of donors who heard such allegations reported that they no longer contribute to the organization and another 17% reported a reduction of support.
• Podcast Launched:  BBB WGA recently launched a new Podcast Series, the Heart of Giving, that features in-depth interviews with charity leaders and experts including: Judy Belk, President & CEO, California Wellness Foundation; Nancy Brown, CEO of American Heart Association; and Helen Gayle, President & CEO of Chicago Community Trust.
• Advancing Collaboration: The revised Give.org website also included an expanded section on Advancing Collaboration to encourage charities to consider collaborations to help them accomplish more than any single organization can do alone. One new section, Inspiring Collaboration, shares a series of interviews with charity leaders describing their approach to collaboration.

BBB Wise Giving Alliance is tax exempt as a charitable organization under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Like other nationally soliciting charities, we register to solicit with the appropriate state government agencies across the country. Here is a link to our state government disclosures as well as our latest annual report and financials. We look forward to accomplishing even more in 2021 and would be grateful for any support you provide.  Please consider donating to the BBB Wise Giving Alliance.

Video of the Week

As part of our Building Trust Video Series, we are pleased to provide a video featuring an interview with Andrea J. O’Neill, Executive Director, Lupus Research Alliance (a BBB Accredited Charity) which seeks to find better treatments and support medical research to ultimately prevent and cure systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE or lupus), a debilitating autoimmune disease.

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.

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO
BBB Wise Giving Alliance