5 Toms River Nonprofits To Support This Holiday Season

TOMS RIVER, NJ — If you’re like many of your Toms River neighbors, you may spend a good part of the holiday season with your credit card in hand buying gifts for family and friends. Coming up soon is a chance to give back to the local community.

Giving Tuesday, which in 2024 falls on Dec. 3, is a day dedicated to supporting nonprofit and community groups. Since 2012, nonprofits worldwide have used the Tuesday after Thanksgiving to galvanize fundraising, rally volunteers and add momentum to their causes.

Maintaining funding is a constant challenge for many nonprofits that fill gaps and meet other needs in the Toms River area.

Here are five local nonprofits to consider getting behind on Giving Tuesday:

1. Your Grandmother's Cupboard: The organization based in Toms River distributes clothing, coats, blankets and personal care items to people in need, covering the necessities beyond food.

2. Caregiver Volunteers of Central Jersey: The organization provides services to seniors, veterans, and elderly disabled, along with individuals living with dementia, and caregivers of loved ones with chronic illnesses. The help provided includes transportation to medical appointments, caregiver respite, grocery shopping assistance, handyman services and more in Ocean and Monmouth counties.

3. MA-22 (Ma Deuce Deuce): The organization serves veterans dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder from their military service, and helps their families, through outings and other ways to connect, to help prevent veteran suicides.

4. Animal Birth Control ABC-NJ: The organization provides assistance for spaying and neutering cats and dogs to help reduce the population of unwanted animals to both people who are adopting animals and to people working on trap-neuter-return programs.

5. Northern Ocean Habitat for Humanity: While it's best known for helping low-income families become homeowners, the organization also does home repairs for people in need who don't have the financial means to hire a handyman or a contractor.