Giving Tuesday: 5 Princeton Nonprofits That Could Use Your Help

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

1. Share My Meals: Founded in January 2020, Share My Meals is a nonprofit organization based in Princeton, New Jersey, and active across New Jersey, dedicated to addressing food insecurity and the environmental impact of food waste by recovering and delivering healthy prepared meals to local communities.
2. Housing Initiatives of Princeton: Founded in 2001, HIP helps low-income working families to stay and thrive in the community through generous support from businesses, individuals, partner congregations, agencies, and foundations. They provide transitional housing coupled with supportive services and temporary rental assistance – including arrears, first month’s rent or security deposit – to enable low-income families to retain existing housing or acquire affordable housing. They work to raise awareness of insufficient housing options and challenges facing the working poor.
3. Center at 353: Formerly Trinity Counseling Services, Center at 353 provides mental health services to the community through evidence-based clinical practice and education.
4. Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice: The Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice is a dedicated Queer safe- space, community activist hub, and educational bridge for LGBTQIA youth, intersectional families, and all marginalized people across the spectrum, dedicated to preserving the life and legacy of Bayard Rustin by offering innovative all- inclusive support initiatives, powerful programs, and events hosted at their Princeton New Jersey headquarters and at various partner centers across the nation connecting our beautifully diverse communities in ways as inspirational as they are exponential.
5. Homeworks, Trenton: Homeworks was founded in 2016 and is a nonprofit operating a free, after-school residential program for marginalized high school girls that provides academic and identity-driven leadership enrichment to supplement public schools and develop community leaders. HomeWorks inspires and equips young women from marginalized communities to achieve their potential and positively transform the world around them by providing a supportive and educational residential environment.

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.