In a nutshell, Give!Guide is Portland's easiest path to end-of-year giving. The campaign begins on November 1 and closes at midnight December 31.

Give!Guide is Willamette Week’s annual effort to raise funds for — and draw attention to — the good works of local nonprofits. G!G has raised more than $56 million for hundreds of local nonprofits since inception in 2004.

Last year’s campaign raised $8,154,083 for 235 local nonprofits and the Oregon Cultural Trust from 16,847 donors. The grassroots campaign is supported by numerous local businesses, provides healthy incentives to donors, and emphasizes giving by Portlanders under the age of 36 to build a culture of citizen engagement.

G!G showcases small, medium and large organizations whose missions fall into ten categories:

1. Animals
2. Civil & Human Rights
3. Community
4. Creative Expression
5. Education
6. Environment
7. Health
8. Home
9. Human Services
10. Hunger

Donations are open November 1 through midnight on December 31 annually. During the "off-season" all donate buttons redirect to the nonprofit's own giving portals. This helps them to connect with supporters all year.

The mission of Willamette Week's Give!Guide is to engage young Portlanders who are 35 and under in giving back to the community and building a culture of active citizenship*. Today, readers 35 and under provide 31% of the donations. We want to draw attention to the good works of local nonprofits and support their work in our community.

*Give!Guide defines “citizens” as people who are engaged with the civic and political landscape of America. We don’t believe that citizens are limited to a legal status or static identity, nor their privileges confined to the act of voting. America is a nation of immigrants, and we honor and celebrate the newcomers who have helped build American society.

Big Give Days are a BFD around here. Donating to a nonprofit on a BGD automatically enters you to win an exciting prize from our community partners. Do you like getaways, shopping sprees, cool products and experiences? We've got them and you could win simply by supporting a nonprofit on a BGD. There's no limit to how much you can give on a BGD, so give big and give often!

Why do we use incentives? Because it's fun! Plus it helps nonprofits reach their fundraising goals.

View this year's BGDs and prizes here.

Give!Guide awards nonprofits with the most individual donors 35 and under in each category with a cash prize of $1,000.

That's $10,000 in extra money going to the bottom line for the nonprofits young donors care about the most.

While G!G is live, you can get an up-to-the-minute count of each organization's 35 and under donors by clicking on the Giving Stats button on the home page.

The prize is generously sponsored by Tandem Property Management.

We want the next generation of Portlanders to get in the habit of investing in our community. If young people begin supporting nonprofits at an early age, even with small, $10 or $20 donations, they are likely to continue to give as they get older – and the amount of their support grows with their income.

Many families use Give!Guide as a way to teach their children about philanthropy. The family learns about the nonprofits, decide what's important, and allow the children to make the donation. It's an empowering act for child. It helps them identify their values and learn about organizations working on thing that matter to them. It also teaches them about citizenship, stewardship, and empathy.

Creating an account makes it easy to for you to track previous donations, find old receipts, and add nonprofits to your favorites list.

You can subscribe here to stay up on all the do-good happenings at Give!Guide and in Portland!

Be sure to select "Nonprofit News & Info" if you'd like to get alerts about the application and campaign activities.

If you have questions, comments, or feedback please feel free to email [email protected].

The minimum donation is $10.

Yes!

The easiest way to give is here on giveguide.org, but we also accept checks at the office if that's your preference. We have a form for this!

This works for personal or business checks, as well as any distributions from a Donor Advised Fund (DAF), or IRA fund. It can take 7+ days for DAF requests to be issued, please make your request early in order to beat the 12/31 deadline.

Offline donation forms and checks must be received by December 31 before our vault closes.

• Make payable to: "Willamette Week's Give!Guide" (Anything else and the bank will refuse the payment!)
• Mail to: PO Box 10770, Portland, OR 97296
• Must: Include a list of your nonprofit selections and distributions.

Questions? Email [email protected].

Yes. All participating organizations have 501(c) 3 status (or are fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)3) and are verified to be in good standing with the IRS and Oregon Secretary of State. Your tax receipt will come from the nonprofit shortly after you donate. You may be able to claim a tax deduction for your charitable contribution for the full amount of the gift. Please check with your tax professional.

Give!Guide sends everyone a transaction — not tax — receipt immediately after you make a donation.

All of the money you donate to a nonprofit through Give!Guide goes directly to that nonprofit, minus a 3.9% interchange fee to help cover credit card transaction fees which can range widely. Give!Guide covers all additional fees and site security costs above that amount. Donations made by check do not have an interchange fee, 100% goes to the nonprofit.

Please note that most nonprofit donation portals have interchange fees (again, because of credit card companies), these typically range between 4-9%.

Yes! It's easy to make a gift in honor of someone special. There's a place to let the nonprofit know during the checkout process. Plus you can send a note through the system (look for prompts after your donation is complete) or download one of our honorary notecards.

Yes!

Matching gifts are a power move — we encourage everyone to utilize corporate matching programs if they're available to you! Each program will have their own procedures, please refer, please check with them for instructions.

Yes! Simply check the appropriate box on the checkout page. The organizations receiving the donations will mail you a tax deductible receipt, but have agreed not to send any further mail.

Yes! Simply check the appropriate box on the checkout page.

Unless the nonprofit's profile says otherwise, your donations will support the overall mission of the organization rather than for a particular program or project of the nonprofit. This is sometimes called core or unrestricted, or general operating support.

Donations made through the Give!Guide website are tracked by organization as soon as the transaction is made. The Give!Guide website also will report which organizations are leading in specific categories, such as total donations and most donors under 35.

WW's Skidmore Prize recognizes Portlanders 35 and under who are shaping our collective community through their work and long-term dedication to nonprofits that serve causes critical to the growth and vitality of Portland and its surroundings.

The prize is intended to reward humble excellence, to encourage recipients to continue working in the nonprofit world and to inspire younger generations to go from “potential” to the real deal in terms of taking action and modeling what it means to be an active participant in the community we all have a stake in.

Winners must be under the age of 36 and work full-time for a local nonprofit. The Skidmore Prize winners are celebrated, given an award of $4,000 each, and a handsome plaque. View this year's winners on the Skidmore Prize page.

The Skidmore Prize nomination process is closed for 2023. Subscribe to our newsletter and select "Nonprofit News & Info" to get the first notice when nominations open for next year. We typically release the application in late spring.

Skidmore Prize winners are chosen from a pool of individuals who are nominated by their peers and coworkers.

A selection committee then chooses eight or nine finalists to interview, and selects four of the finalists as winners.

Give!Guide's nonprofits are chosen by a community-comprised selection committee each year. To be considered the organization must

• have 501(c)3 status
• be based in Multnomah, Clackamas, or Washington counties,
• and must do work that impacts the Portland metro area.

The nonprofits range in size from micro to large as determined by their IRS filings. Application is competitive with over 400 applicants each year!

Interested nonprofits should visit giveguide.org on April 1 for the application materials. They should also subscribe to the nonprofit mailing list to get the application sent directly. Here's the 2023 application for reference.

Nonprofit's federal tax ID numbers are listed on their profiles.

Donors will get an immediate transaction receipt from Give!Guide that includes the nonprofit tax IDs (and your incentives activation link). Nonprofits will send you a tax receipt within two weeks that should include their tax ID, too.

These are nonprofits that weren't in Give!Guide last year. It takes some time to gain traction through G!G, so we hope you give these organizations extra consideration.

Nonprofits with 50%+ of their organizational leadership self-identified as Black, Indigenous, and/or People of Color (BIPOC) can add "BIPOC Leadership" to their Give!Guide profile. Leadership is defined as, “the people who have the decision making power in the org who can impact strategic direction.”

An "OCT Qualified" nonprofit means they're a partner in the Oregon Cultural Trust. Together, Oregonians and the Oregon Cultural Trust fund 1600+ nonprofits in Oregon in the areas of arts, heritage, and humanities. This year, we have 51 "OCT Qualified" nonprofits. Find them here!

When you donate to an "OCT Qualified" nonprofit, you'll be invited to make a matching gift to the Oregon Cultural Trust during the checkout process.

You'll need to create an account first, but once you do simply click the heart icons (they're on the nonprofit profiles). All of your favorites are added to a list in your account for easy-peasy donations when you're ready.

Can't find your favorite? We curate a fresh group of nonprofits each and every year. It keeps things fresh and exciting! Our hope is that you discover a new favorite nonprofit or two in this way. Sometimes nonprofits move on or take a year off and that's okay, too. You're always welcome to support them directly!

A nonprofit's size is determined by their budget according to their most recent IRS 990 Form. This table showcases the different tiers.