Charity

Like Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Toby Ord is promising to give most of his wealth away during his lifetime. But unlike Zuckerberg, Ord is not rich. The university researcher earns just a bit more than Britain's average wage. Stephen Beard reports.

This is the biggest charity-giving time of the year, and you can probably tell by the amount of mail you've been receiving from non-profits recently. But does this sort of junk mailing work? Jeff Tyler reports.

Melissa Berman, president and CEO of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, talks with Tess Vigeland about the motivation behind giving, how much homework people should do before donating, and the trust deficit created by the recession.

As we continue our week on philanthropy, commentator and author Jonah Lehrer takes a look at how we decide to give to others. He finds it has a lot to do with emotional response, and what our brains can handle.

A few of the super rich around the world are pledging to contribute a majority of their wealth to charities and nonprofits. But most of that wealth is in investments -- so how good are these pledges?

Giving and volunteering leaves you with a warm, fuzzy feeling, but for companies that do the same, it may give them a whole lot of free publicity.

We hear from listeners about their charitable giving this season.

Kai Ryssdal talks to Ned Breslin, CEO of the nonprofit Water for People, about the group's FLOW system, which measures the successes -- or failures -- of water projects around the world in real time.

Tess Vigeland talks to Rachael Chong, CEO of the nonprofit Catchafire, which matches professionals with charities and nonprofit organizations who can use their skills.

More and more people are using plastic, which makes it hard to donate to the Salvation Army folks with the red kettles. So the Salvation Army -- along with other nonprofits -- are using social media to collect donations.