Giving Tuesday shifts focus from shopping to charity

Did you stay out of the malls on Black Friday? Are you doing your best to ignore the online sales of Cyber Monday?

If so, tomorrow (December 3) might be more your speed: Giving Tuesday. That's when charities will try to shift the focus from shopping to donating and volunteering for nonprofits.

One online platform that connects donors with Canadian charities is Vancouver-based Chimp. What's interesting about Chimp is it's a charity itself. You create an account on Chimp, add money to it, and then direct how and where Chimp distributes the cash.

If you make a donation through Chimp during December, the social media company HootSuite will cover all of the processing fees that would normally eat up a fraction of your contribution.

Another site that makes it easy to donate online is CanadaHelps.