Giving Tuesday: Where a $25 Gift Goes in Kenya

Giving Tuesday is a global day of generosity held on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving, following Black Friday and Cyber Monday. It started in 2012 as a simple counterweight to a week of buying, and it now anchors the start of the year-end giving season for most U.S. nonprofits. For a small organization like ours, it is one of the few days when a modest gift arrives alongside thousands of others and adds up to a program.

Something specific. We do not run general appeals, because families in Kenya asked for particular things and we would rather report back on those.

• $15 — a HopeKit: reusable pads, underwear, soap, and a washcloth, sewn by Kenyan women, lasting two to three years.
• $25 — a Garden Tower that grows up to 120 plants in a few square feet.
• $150 — one 1,000-liter rainwater tank placed at a family's home.
• $1,000 — a protected spring, roughly one to two dollars per person served, lasting decades.

Follow one gift the whole way in what your $25 Garden Tower donation really does.

Our donation forms run on Zeffy, which charges no platform fee, so a $25 gift arrives as $25 rather than $23.20. Programs are led by Kenyan directors in the communities themselves, and every gift is designated to a specific program rather than a general fund. The full breakdown is in where does my donation go.

Check us the way you should check any nonprofit on Giving Tuesday. We are a 501(c)(3), EIN 82-1048388, founded in 2015, and listed on every major independent database:

• Candid / GuideStar
• Charity Navigator
• GreatNonprofits
• ProPublica Nonprofit Explorer (Form 990 filings)

More on vetting any organization: how to choose a charity in Kenya.

Three things help nearly as much:

• Leave a review on GreatNonprofits if you have traveled with us or followed the work.
• Ask your employer to match a gift someone else made, or check whether your company runs a Giving Tuesday match.
• Share one story — the reach of a small organization on this day is mostly other people's posts.

And if December works better than November, read the year-end giving guide.