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Hey readers,

Sara here. It’s giving…Wednesday? 

Millions of people took a break from holiday shopping — or, erm, no-buy boycotting — to give their favorite charity a much-needed dose of love yesterday. If Black Friday had a sweetie pie of a little brother, his name would be Giving Tuesday, one of the most important days of the year for the country’s over 1.5 million charities.

And in stark contrast to dire warnings about an America that’s less generous than ever before, its social contract eroded beyond repair, Americans give more and more on Giving Tuesday each year. Yesterday was no exception. Donations likely exceeded $4 billion, according to preliminary estimates, a record-breaking haul amounting to 10 percent more than what people gave in 2024.

That’s not the only good news on giving lately. Three-quarters of Americans said they gave an average of nearly $1,400 to charity over the past 12 months, according to a new poll by Vanguard Charitable, almost 30 percent more than they gave this time last year. When SNAP funding lapsed during the federal shutdown, donations for hunger charities spiked by a whopping 587 percent on the popular vetting site Charity Navigator. 

And in a hopeful sign of things to come, Giving USA found that for the first time in three years, total giving rose at a faster clip than inflation in 2024, rising to a record $592.50 billion. 

To be clear, none of this means that it’s been an easy year for charities. A full one-third of nonprofits have experienced serious disruptions to their government funding this year under the Trump administration’s slash-and-burn approach to cuts, leading to widespread layoffs and program reductions. With the decimation of the US Agency for International Development, many global charities on the frontlines of combating child malnutrition, HIV/AIDS, and climate-related catastrophes are quite literally running on fumes.

So whatever you can afford to give this year — the change you round up at the check-out counter or the time you spend volunteering at your local food bank — will likely go even further than it used to when it comes to upholding vital progress and lifesaving programs.

And if you opted out of Giving Tuesday yesterday, if you found the onslaught of emails beseeching you for donations to be icky or overwhelming, that's okay, too. Most charities could actually use your help all year round, any day of the week. Yes, even on a Wednesday. 

The American Red Cross wants my special blood again.

Well, not that special: O+ is the most common blood type in the world, and the most commonly used in transfusions. For that reason, it’s the most needed, and can be given to anyone with a positive blood type — over 85 percent of the US population. 

But regardless of your blood type, I want you to consider donating blood – or otherwise doing your part to help address blood shortages — this Giving Tuesday. Very few people eligible to donate blood do so each year, and the need for blood is even higher during the holiday season. Blood has a limited shelf life, and the American blood system relies on unpaid volunteers to replenish the supply. 

The need for blood is even greater around the holiday season when donation rates drop. People get busy, but patients still need blood for a variety of medical treatments. For this story, I did a deep dive into blood donation: how it works, how your blood can save up to three lives, sci-fi sounding efforts to create synthetic blood to meet the need, and how you can help even if you don’t roll up your sleeve. 

—Shayna Korol, Future Perfect fellow

Who’s afraid of MacKenzie Scott? Elon Musk, apparently, who’s called her philanthropy “concerning” and subtweeted the coy billionaire novelist in a post excoriating “super rich ex-wives who hate their former spouse” — in this case, Jeff Bezos.

But Scott, who has donated over $19 billion to charity since her divorce from Bezos in 2019, seems categorically unbothered by the idea of ruffling a few feathers. This year alone, she’s given over $700 million to historically Black colleges and universities against a backdrop of widespread cuts and federal backlash to racial justice and diversity programs. 

For this story, I dove into the strategic underpinnings of Scott’s approach to philanthropy — which is far more generous, more trusting, and a good deal less bureaucratic than that of her ultra-rich peers. As it turns out, you don’t have to be a billionaire to give like one. Though it certainly helps.

—Sara Herschander, Future Perfect fellow

As the writer of an ethical advice column, I get a lot of questions from people who really want to do good in the world but are running into problems.

So, in case you missed it: In honor of giving season, I combed through all the advice I’ve given over the past year and created this cheat sheet for you. It’s packed with my top tips, as well as my favorite quotes about the philosophy of doing good.

—Sigal Samuel, senior reporter

Today’s edition was edited and produced by Izzie Ramirez. We'll see you Friday. 

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