Giving Tuesday: 5 Ocean City Nonprofits That Could Use Your Help

OCEAN CITY, NJ — There’s no single way to show generosity on Giving Tuesday, which falls on Tuesday, Dec. 2, this year, but several nonprofits in Ocean City 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 nonprofits in Ocean City that depend on community support (donations should be made directly to each of the nonprofits below):

• Colony Club of Ocean City: This women's social and community service club supports all sorts of services and projects to better the community.
• Humane Society of Ocean City: For 60 years, the humane society has been rescuing animals and adopting them out, now also offering spay/neuter services, a vet hospital and animal control.
• Friends of OCNJ History & Culture: As historic homes get replaced with megamansions, this group aims to make sure people know about the island's rich history and works to preserve it.
• The Renee Parker Monihan Foundation: When Renee Parker Monihan was just 3, she was killed in a crash in Ocean City. Her family launched the foundation to support pediatric medical care and early childhood education.
• Ocean City Ecumenical Council: This faith-based organization brings together people of different denominations to support people in need with a clothes closet, food pantry and more.

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.