give + ology
Give: [giv] to present voluntarily and without expecting compensation; bestow
Ology: [ol-uh-jee] any science or branch of knowledge
You can’t find Givology in the dictionary but we chose this name in the spirit of changing the way we traditionally think about giving!

Great question! A core tenet of our mission is to identify the most innovative grassroots organizations around the world and bring them into our network. Rather than focus on large organizations with well-funded budgets, we pride ourselves on looking for truly local, on-the-ground organizations led by inspirational leaders with deep ties and a proven track record in the community. To ensure that we share only the highest quality projects with our donors, we conduct an extensive screening and due diligence process. In fact, we’ve published “#GiveInspiration: How to Give Effectively” on Amazon, which goes through our ethos and approach (PDF available at this link). Typically, we admit partners to Givology through three main ways:

1. In-network referrals: beyond the data that we collect, many of our partners are referred to us through our extensive network of fellows, professional volunteers involved in development, and board members

2. Research by our associates: we have an active team that constantly monitors news feeds, think tanks and research institutes, philanthropy conferences, and development blogs for innovative organizations in education

3. Formal application process: any education organization potentially interested in becoming a Givology partner can fill out an application and begin the interview process

We have plenty of opportunities to volunteer, start a chapter in your local community, travel abroad as a fellow, or intern with our core team! Check out the “Get involved” section of our website for more details on how to apply. Through your account dashboard, you can also log your volunteer hours for Givology – in so many ways, your time and skills are one of the most valuable donations you can give. Most of the volunteering can be done remotely, which affords you a lot of flexibility!

Yes, your donations are tax deductible. Givology is a 501(c)(3) operating charity registered in Pennsylvania. Tax receipts should be sent automatically for online donations, but if you would like further documentation, please e-mail us at info@givology.org and we’ll be happy to send you a receipt.

You can mail us a check at the address below with a short note indicating which projects and students you want to support. Checks should be made out to Givology. A tax receipt will be e-mailed or sent to you in the confirmation.

Givology
PO Box 2105
New York, NY 10185-2105

As for corporate matching, Givology is registered on many of the major platforms. If you have any issue finding our organization within the corporate giving database or would like to request additional documentation on prior donations to support matching, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@givology.org.

Our partners are committed to making regular updates on the progress of the students and projects sponsored by Givology. Updates come in the form of letters from students, videos, photos, academic transcripts, staff descriptions, among other forms. With our volunteer translators, we post the content and share it with you! By registering for an account on Givology and donating to a project or student, you can view updates on our website when new progress reports become available. Furthermore, you can also view our student blogs and monitor your personalized feed of updates in your dashboard.

Our goal is to minimize transaction fees to ensure that our students get the greatest amount of funding possible. 100% of your contribution is directed towards your charitable contribution – none goes to cover costs at Givology. Compared to other online funding organizations that will automatically take >10% of the donated amount to cover overhead, we’re able to keep our annual costs extremely low due to our volunteer-only philosophy. To cover bank transaction fees that range from 2% to 4%, we conduct separate fundraising of our own to ensure that your contribution is fully protected in value. Furthermore, with our 501(c)(3) tax exemption status, we have secured preferential transaction pricing for online donations and international money transfers.

Other expenses include miscellaneous expenses related to education, such as lunch money at school, clothing or school uniforms, cost of supplementary workbooks and materials, additional tutoring, and any other case-by-case expense related to particular schools or programs. Since the needs of each student vary, our partners generally allow students some room for discretionary expenditures related to education. We usually provide a breakdown of this “other” category in the profile description.

Once you log-in, you have the option of sending a message to our students through our inbox system. Every quarter, we aggregate all the messages that donors have sent, and deliver them via our partners – to show our students that there are so many people across the globe who truly care and believe in them. Often times, our students respond in the updates that we receive, which are posted to our website. Through this unique feature, you have the opportunity to communicate and interact with the causes that you support. Sometimes letters might be directed back specifically to you; other times partners anonymize content. 

Givology is officially incorporated as a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit in Pennsylvania, but our staff presence and volunteer network extends across the globe. We curate our partnership network based on identification of high impact, innovative organizations that have a proven track record of understanding their community and driving towards strong education outcomes. Geographically, we focus on grassroots organizations located in developing countries just because each dollar stretches more and because of larger gaps in existing institutions. If you know of a worthwhile organization to support, please contact us – we are agnostic to country, but highly attuned to impact.

Contact us if anything goes wrong here – we’re here to help! E-mail us at info@givology.org with any inquiries.

A great feature of the Givology website is that you can send a message to your student, which will be delivered on your behalf by our partners. Our students often respond to donor letters in their updates, which we scan, translate, and post to our website. In consideration of privacy, specific student contact information is not disclosed publicly. The privacy of the students is first and foremost our concern.Some of our partners have special programs in which donors are encouraged to visit and work alongside students. For example, the Peach Foundation holds a summer camp in which donors can visit student beneficiaries and locals schools to grant scholarships. If you are interested in these opportunities, please reach out to us.

No worries at all! In such a case, consider making a Gift to Givology and we can allocate your grant to highest impact priorities

Whether a project or student is partially or fully funded, funds raised are transferred directly to the partner organization on a quarterly or bi-annual basis, whichever is preferred by the partner. Since our partners operate abroad, we aim to minimize wire transfer costs by timing to key milestones, such as the start of a school year. In addition, we aggregate the messages that we receive from donors and include this with our transfer. We care a lot about transparency and providing donors insight into how their grants are being used to develop a true 1×1 connection.

If you are interested in listing your cause on Givology, please check out our page about becoming a Givology partner. Once you have submitted the documentation and completed our interview process, we will post the project and student profiles on our website. Unfortunately, we do not accept proposals from individuals – only from organizations.