Why Giving Tuesday has lost its luster for many animal welfare organizations

In the 2010s, tech companies were supposed to signal a whole new corporate world, from where and how people worked to more effective charitable giving. Facebook (now Meta) and Amazon were prime (haha) examples of new ways of giving.

2013 was the year that Amazon launched AmazonSmile, giving buyers a way to donate to a charity of their choice through qualifying purchases. This highly successful program would lead to half a billion dollars in charitable donations over its ten year run.

In 2016, Facebook announced a partnership with the Bill Gates foundation to match Giving Tuesday donations ( given through Facebook to qualifying nonprofits). This program generated millions in matches annually.

Facebook also covered credit card processing fees throughout the year. In some ways, this was its most impactful program, considering that fees are 1.99% plus .49 per transaction multiplied by millions of donations.

Things changed in 2022. Meta announced that they would only match recurring donations up to $100 per person and $100,000 per nonprofit. However, this still meant they would match up to $7 million in total across all organizations.

The change that really impacted nonprofits was Facebook’s decision to stop covering payment processing fees for charitable donations as of October 31, 2022 — three days after they rebranded as Meta. Donors could choose to pay the fee of course but most likely, people reduced the amount they gave.

Then in 2023, with little fanfare, Meta stopped supporting Giving Tuesday altogether. I was surprised there wasn’t more outcry. Matching funds make a huge difference for small to mid sized nonprofits. According to a 2021 report on philanthropy*, campaigns that leverage donation matching raise three to five times more money than those that do not.

Coincidentally 2023 also marked the end of AmazonSmile. This popular program allowed their customers to select a charity to receive 0.5% of the price of eligible purchases. At the end of 2022, the program had generated $449 million in donations to various charities.

Amazon said the impact was not great enough but many smaller nonprofits benefitted from the steady trickle of revenue.

I wonder if Meta and Amazon realizes or cares that their decisions to end donation programs have seriously hurt many small to mid-sized nonprofits.

Sure, corporations can do whatever they want with their money but I was surprised by how quickly and thoroughly both dumped their charitable giving endeavors.

A quick Google search for “Does Meta give to nonprofits” and “Meta charitable giving” only pulled up old news about Giving Tuesday. If they do support any nonprofits, it is either not well publicized or insignificant. (If anyone knows otherwise, please let me know!)

Amazon does continue to donate. However it follows standard corporate giving habits, which is to support  human-centered, non-controversial causes such as children, education and  underserved communities.

The decisions of Meta and Amazon have been especially devastating for the animal rescue community. On social media, I see endless appeals for donations and scores of unsuccessful fundraisers. Small to mid-sized animal rescues rely heavily on grassroots support and small gifts from many individuals, typically in the middle-class. For this class of donors, processing fees do matter.

What now?

1) If you personally know either Mark Zuckerberg or Dr. Priscilla Chan, please ask them to consider matching Giving Tuesday donations in 2024. Up to $5 million is enough for me.

2) If you are high up at Visa, MasterCard, American Express or other credit card, can you offer a lower processing fee to nonprofits? Maybe just for donations made via Facebook on Giving Tuesday??

3) Convince Mackenzie Scott to support animal rescues? 

*Source: