Giving Tuesday: 5 Cape Cod Nonprofits That Could Use Your Help

CAPE COD, MA — There’s no single way to show generosity on Giving Tuesday, which falls on Tuesday, Dec. 2, this year, but several nonprofits on Cape Cod are counting on end-of-the-year donations and support.

Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday all focus on consumerism, while the idea behind GivingTuesday is to galvanize fundraising, rally volunteers and add momentum to their causes.

Since 2012, nonprofits, community and grassroots groups, and mutual aid networks worldwide have used the #GivingTuesday hashtag to encourage fundraising, rally volunteers and add momentum to their causes, according to the nonprofit of the same name behind the movement.

Local nonprofits remain heavily dependent on donor support. Charitable contributions increased 2.9 percent from June 2024 to June 2025, according to the Fundraising Effectiveness Report analysis.

Notably, although total dollars raised have increased, year-to-date performance among supersize donors has been softer than in 2024, making small contributions more important than ever.

In the United States, Giving Tuesday is led by hundreds of communities, networks and coalitions.

Here are five Cape Cod nonprofits that depend on community support (donations should be made directly to each of the nonprofits below):

• Arts Foundation of Cape Cod: The foundation serves as the link between the Cape Cod Arts Community and the Cape's residents and visitors. It is the regional arts agency for Barnstable County and Cape Cod’s only nonprofit arts and culture organization that serves all artists, all art forms and all cultural and historical centers, the foundation says.
• Barnstable Land Trust: Barnstable Land Trust is a community-supported nonprofit whose mission is to preserve natural resources and special places in Barnstable and nearby areas. Among their recent initiatives, the Land Trust recently published the first town-wide trail guide.
• Dogs for Better Lives: Falmouth's Dogs for Better Lives helps people on Cape Cod by "providing clients with more safety, independence, and connection to the world around them that they may have lost through hearing loss, an autism diagnosis, or other trauma or disability." To learn more or make a donation, click here.
• Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute: The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is perhaps the most important non-profit organization dedicated to ocean research, exploration and education, and it's located on Cape Cod. Since 1930, WHOI scientists and engineers have laid the groundwork for many of the discoveries that have shaped what we understand about the ocean and its impacts on the planet.
• Cape Kid Meals: Cape Kid Meals was created to ensure that Cape Cod students who eat free or reduced lunch at school during the week have meals over the weekend. To learn more or make a donation, click here.

The Giving Tuesday movement encourages “radical generosity,” the concept that the suffering of others should be as intolerable to us as our own suffering, according to the movement’s website.

Giving Tuesday was created in New York City in 2012 with a simple goal: to encourage people to do good. Over the past nine years, the idea has grown into the global movement it is today.

Last year, Giving Tuesday participants raised a record-breaking $3.6 billion from 36.1 million participants, bringing the total raised on the day since 2012 to $18.5 billion.