There’s a reason people give to charity, and it’s rarely complicated when you get down to it. You see something—a family who lost everything in a flood, children without enough food, a community trying to rebuild after a crisis—and something in you responds. You want to help. You want your resources to reach someone who actually needs them, to bring some measure of hope into a situation that feels hopeless from the outside.
That desire is real and it’s good. The harder part, if we’re being honest, is figuring out what to do with it.
When you’re ready to give, the practical questions come fast. Will a one-time donation go further than giving a smaller amount every month? Is there a way to give that makes more sense for your financial situation? What if you want to support something specific rather than a general fund? These aren’t questions most charity websites answer well—and not knowing can leave you second-guessing a decision you were already ready to make.
We don’t think that’s how it should work. So what follows is a plain-language look at the seven ways you can give to ADRA, what makes each one different, and how to figure out which one is the right fit for you.
One Thing All Seven Options Have in Common
Before getting into the specifics, it’s worth saying this clearly: no matter which giving option you choose, your gift goes to work in real communities.
ADRA operates in more than 120 countries, running programs in health, education, livelihoods, and emergency relief. Every giving option on this list connects to that same mission. The difference isn’t whether your gift matters—it’s how it gets there and what role you want to play in the process.
With that said, here’s a look at each option.
1. Current Appeal — Help People Thrive, Not Just Survive
Some of the deepest suffering in the world doesn’t make the news. It’s quieter than a hurricane and slower than a flood—but it’s just as devastating.
It’s a child who doesn’t have enough to eat, not because of a disaster that happened last week, but because his community has never had reliable access to food. A mother drinking from an unsafe water source because there’s simply no alternative. Families without healthcare, without enough nutrition, without the basic resources most of us take for granted every single day.
That’s what the Current Appeal addresses—not a single emergency, but the persistent reality of poverty that traps entire communities and keeps them there. Your gift provides access to nutrition, clean water, healthcare, and other essential resources for men, women, and children in struggling communities worldwide. Not a temporary fix. A real difference in people’s daily lives.
2. Emergency Response — Reach People in Crisis Quickly
When disaster strikes—a flood, an earthquake, a conflict that forces thousands from their homes overnight—the people at greatest risk are almost always the ones who are hardest to reach. Distance, infrastructure, chaos: everything works against them in those first critical hours and days.
ADRA’s Emergency Response fund exists to close that gap. Your gift supports immediate assistance for women, children, and families struggling to survive in the aftermath of disaster, as well as preparation for future emergencies and recovery efforts that last long after the news cameras leave. Getting there fast matters. Staying matters too. This giving option makes both possible.
3. Gift Catalog — Choose Exactly What Your Gift Does
Some donors want more than a dollar amount. They want to point at something specific and say: that—I want to fund that.
The ADRA Gift Catalog makes that possible. It’s a curated selection of real, tangible needs—things like clean water filters, school supplies, nutrition support, agricultural tools—each with a specific dollar amount attached. You browse, you choose, and your gift does the thing you selected.
This is the most concrete giving option ADRA offers, and for many donors, that concreteness is what makes it feel real. You’re not contributing to a general pool—you’re buying something specific for someone who needs it.
It’s also worth knowing: the Gift Catalog is a thoughtful option for giving on someone else’s behalf. A gift in a friend’s honor, a memorial donation, a meaningful alternative to a birthday present. And if you choose to send that person one of our Honor Cards, you have a special way of telling them that you gave on their behalf, and that you’re making a difference together.
4. Give Monthly — A Regular Commitment for Lasting Change
Some donors reach a point where they want their giving to feel less like an event and more like a commitment—something steady and ongoing rather than a response to a particular moment. That’s exactly what monthly giving is for.
A recurring monthly gift to ADRA does more than the equivalent one-time donation—not because the math is different, but because of what predictable funding makes possible. When an organization knows a certain amount is coming in every month, they can plan long-term programs, retain trained staff, and make commitments to the communities they serve. One-time gifts are necessary. Monthly gifts are the backbone.
You don’t have to give a lot for this to be meaningful. A monthly gift of $25 or $30—less than a streaming subscription—adds up to $300 or $360 over the course of a year, funding months of programming that would otherwise require a separate fundraising campaign to sustain.
Monthly donors at ADRA are part of a community called the ADRA Angels. It’s a small designation with a real meaning: Angels are the people whose consistent support allows ADRA to make long-term promises to the world’s most vulnerable communities. And being an Angel doesn’t stop you from also making one-time gifts whenever something moves you to give more.
5. Planned Giving — Make Your Values Part of Your Legacy
This is the giving option that most people put off thinking about—understandably. Planning a legacy gift means thinking about end-of-life decisions, and that’s never a comfortable topic.
But planned giving is less about death and more about intention. It’s a way of saying: This is what I believe in. This is what I want to still be doing after I’m gone.
A planned gift to ADRA is typically made through a will, a trust, or a beneficiary designation—and it doesn’t require significant wealth to be significant in impact. Even a modest bequest can fund years of programming. What it does require is a decision: that you want your legacy to include something larger than yourself.
The most common forms of planned giving are:
- Bequests — a gift left to ADRA in your will or trust
- Beneficiary designations — naming ADRA as a beneficiary on a retirement account, life insurance policy, or bank account
- Charitable remainder trusts — a more structured arrangement that provides income during your lifetime, with the remainder going to ADRA
ADRA’s team is available to walk you through any of these options without pressure. This is a conversation worth having, not a form to fill out alone.
6. Gift of Stock — A Smarter Way to Give
Most people don’t know this option exists. Those who do often wish they’d heard about it sooner.
If you own appreciated stock—shares that have grown in value since you bought them—donating that stock directly to ADRA is almost always more tax-efficient than selling it first and donating the cash. Here’s the short version of why.
Say you bought stock for $1,000 and it’s now worth $5,000. If you sell it and donate the $5,000, you’ll owe capital gains tax on the $4,000 gain before you give a dollar. But if you donate the stock directly to ADRA, you skip that tax entirely—and you may be able to take a deduction on the full $5,000 market value. ADRA gets more. Your tax bill shrinks. Nobody loses.*
This isn’t a loophole. It’s how the tax code is designed to encourage charitable giving. And it’s available to anyone with appreciated securities in a brokerage account, not just high-net-worth donors.
Talk to your financial advisor before making any decisions—everyone’s tax situation is different. But if you’ve been thinking about giving more and wondering how to make your dollars go further, this is worth a serious look.
*This content is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or tax advice. Please consult a qualified financial advisor or tax professional before making decisions about donating stock or other appreciated assets.
7. Employer Gift Matching — Let Your Employer Double Your Impact
This one might be the most underused giving option on this entire list.
Thousands of companies have gift matching programs—policies where the employer matches their employees’ charitable donations, sometimes dollar-for-dollar, sometimes at a higher ratio. The result: your $50 gift becomes $100. Your $100 becomes $200. No additional cost to you.
Most employees who have this benefit either don’t know it exists or never get around to using it. A quick conversation with your HR department—or a search on your company’s internal benefits portal—takes about five minutes. If your employer matches and you haven’t submitted a match request, you’ve been leaving money on the table.
ADRA is registered with the major employer matching platforms, which makes the process straightforward for most donors. If you run into any issues getting ADRA recognized by your employer’s giving program, reach out directly and they’ll help sort it out.
Learn About Employer Matching →
So, Which Option Is Right for You?
No single answer fits every donor—and that’s the point. But if you’re not sure where to start, this simple framework helps:
- You want to help communities break the cycle of persistent poverty → Current Appeal
- You want your gift to reach people quickly when disaster strikes → Emergency Response
- You want to see exactly what your specific gift does → Gift Catalog
- You want steady, ongoing impact without thinking about it → Give Monthly
- You want your values to outlast you → Planned Giving
- You have appreciated stock and want to give more efficiently → Gift of Stock
- Your employer offers matching → Employer Gift Matching — and then give in whichever way makes the most sense on top of it
One more thing: these options aren’t mutually exclusive. Many ADRA donors give monthly and check their employer matching, or browse the Gift Catalog for holiday gifts while also maintaining a recurring gift. There’s no single right answer—just the one that fits where you are right now.
Where Do You Want to Start?
There’s no wrong place to begin. If you’ve read this far, you already know more than most donors do about how to give in a way that’s intentional and effective.
The easiest first step for most people: browse the Gift Catalog. You’ll see exactly what your gift does from the moment you choose it, which makes the whole thing feel real in a way that a general donation sometimes doesn’t. From there, if you want to build something more sustained, the monthly giving option is waiting.
However you choose to give to ADRA, you’re joining a global community of donors who believe that where someone is born shouldn’t determine whether they have clean water, a safe place to sleep, or a chance to build something better.
That’s the work. And it only happens because people like you decide to be part of it.
Frequently Asked Questions About Giving to ADRA
How much of my donation to ADRA actually goes to programs?
The majority of every dollar donated to ADRA goes directly to programs and the people they serve. ADRA publishes annual reports and maintains a strong rating on Charity Navigator, where you can review detailed financial breakdowns. Transparency is something ADRA takes seriously, and that information is publicly available.
Can I designate my gift to a specific country or program area?
Yes. The Gift Catalog lets you choose specific needs, and ADRA accepts designated gifts for particular regions and programs. If you have something specific in mind that isn’t covered by the Catalog, reaching out directly is the best first step.
Is my donation to ADRA tax-deductible?
ADRA is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, so donations are generally tax-deductible in the United States. The specifics of what you can deduct depend on your individual tax situation—a tax advisor can help you understand what applies to you, especially for stock gifts or planned giving arrangements.
What’s the minimum amount I can give?
For one-time gifts and Gift Catalog purchases, amounts vary by item or campaign. Monthly giving starts at a level that fits your budget—even small recurring gifts add up meaningfully over time. There’s no minimum that’s “too small” to matter.
How do I know my gift is being used the way ADRA says it will be?
ADRA publishes annual reports, maintains third-party ratings through Charity Navigator, and provides regular program updates to donors. If you ever have a specific question about how funds are being used, ADRA’s donor relations team is available to help. The commitment to accountability isn’t just policy—it’s built into how the organization operates.
