The .giving Domain: Naming the Act, Not the Actor
.giving was recorded in the root zone on 11 June 2015, and the contracting party in the IANA entry today is Public Interest Registry. The zone was first delegated to Giving Limited and transferred to PIR on 13 October 2022. The nTLDstats page accessed on 12 August 2026 shows 3,515 registrations, of which 2,000 appear in the zone file.
As a noun, this ending names the act rather than whoever performs it. That makes it sit naturally on pages about a giving day, a corporate matching programme or a culture of philanthropy. Try candidates with a .giving domain search, and where a specific body is running an appeal, compare the .gives page.
.giving and .gives answer to the same registry operator today, though they arrived there by two separate transfers: .gives on 25 August 2022, .giving on 13 October 2022. That is the reverse of the other look-alike pairs in this group — .game and .games, .gift and .gifts sound like one family yet belong to different companies. The practical difference is real: here both endings fall under one registration policy, while in those pairs the policy, the dispute route and the point of contact all run separately.
.GIVING Domain at a Glance
- Sponsoring organisation Public Interest Registry (PIR)
- Root zone record 11 June 2015
- Transferred to PIR 13 October 2022
- Registered names 3,515 (nTLDstats, 12 August 2026)
- Present in the zone file 2,000 names, about 57%
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .giving domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.giving Domain Prices — No Surprise Fees
Registration, transfer and renewal fees are listed separately. The renewal price can differ from the first-year price, so you see both up front.
-
New Registration
$14.99 /year -
Transfer
$34.99 /year -
Renewal
$38.49 /year
Included With Every .giving Domain
-
Free DNS management
Change A, MX, TXT and CNAME records yourself from the panel — no waiting on anyone when you move a site or mailbox.
-
Domain forwarding
Point the domain at your existing site, a campaign page or a social profile — at no extra cost.
.giving Domain Lifecycle
What happens day by day after it expires
Day 0 is the domain's expiry dateIn short: your .giving domain is put on Client Hold on its expiry date, so the site and e-mail stop that same day. You can still renew during the first 20 days, but from this point a late renewal fee is added on top of the renewal price. On day 20 the registration is deleted and until day 50 only a paid restore brings it back. Nothing at all can be done in the 5 days that follow, and on day 55 the name is open to anyone. There is exactly one way never to enter this chain: keep auto-renewal on.
Domain Is Available (Available)
A .giving address at this stage has not been taken yet, and it goes to whoever registers first. Check the name you have in mind — if it is free, it can be yours within minutes.
Domain Is Active (Active Period)
Once registration is complete, the domain is registered to you for the term you selected. You can renew at any point before it expires to keep it active, or switch on auto-renewal so you never have to watch the date.
Renewal Window (Client Hold)
On its expiry date your .giving domain is put on Client Hold: the site and e-mail go down that day, but the registration is still yours. A single renewal within these first 20 days brings everything back exactly as it was — nothing is lost. The only difference is that a late renewal fee is now added to the renewal price; renewing before the expiry date avoids that fee entirely.
Redemption Period (Redemption / RGP)
On day 20 the registration is deleted and the 30-day redemption period that ICANN requires of every gTLD registry begins. The name is not released to anyone during this time; only you can take it back, by paying the restore fee, until day 50. That fee is far higher than a renewal — renewing on time is always the cheaper route.
Pending Delete (Pending Delete)
Once the redemption window closes too, the domain enters its final 5 days and there is no way back. Neither renewal nor restore works here; nobody — your registrar included — can return the name to you. The registry uses this window as the last hold before the name goes back into the pool.
Open to Anyone Again (Released)
On day 55 the name .giving returns to the pool and anyone can register it. Sought-after names are often gone within seconds, and there is no guaranteed way to get one back. Yet staying out of this timeline is entirely in your hands: leave auto-renewal on and the expiry date will never catch you off guard.
The timeline above is the schedule Atak Domain applies and publishes. The ICANN chart you will find elsewhere shows a renewal window of up to 45 days after expiry; ICANN's policy on expired registrations (section 2.2.1) lets registrars delete an expired domain at any time, provided they disclose their policy in advance. We apply that window as 20 days and publish it here in plain sight. Full text of the policy: ICANN Expired Registration Recovery Policy
.giving Domain Specifications and Registration Rules
Registration conditions, supported features and the registry's own timelines in a single table.
.giving Domain Registration
- Document Requirement No documents are required to register a .giving domain
- Character Length 3 - 63 characters
- Registration Period 1 - 10 years
- Name Server Count 2 - 10 servers
.giving Domain Support
- IDN Support No
- Transfer Support Yes
- Late Renewal Support Yes
Frequently Asked Questions About .giving Domains
The questions people actually ask before registering — answered plainly.
-
A pattern that starts with the organisation and leaves the year out lasts longest.
Giving days repeat annually, so writing a year into the address leaves an unusable link twelve months later. Keeping one name and moving each edition to a sub-page holds both printed material and inbound links together. A short address also stays readable on a card or a poster.
-
It does not. The eligibility standard in its policy is defined for .ngo and .ong only.
The word at the end of an address therefore does not show that an organisation is officially recognised. Making up for that on your own side is straightforward: publishing the registered name, the charity or company number and an account of how donations are used builds the trust the ending itself cannot supply.
-
Yes. A programme is easier to run on an address separate from the main site.
Staff contributions, matched funding and volunteering notices gather under one roof, and changes through the year stop competing for space in the main publishing queue. A visible link from the corporate site keeps the programme recognisably part of the company. Check what the record shows through whois search.
-
Of 3,515 registrations, 2,000 appear in the zone file — about 57%.
More than two names in five have never gone live. Because the zone is small, roots combining an organisation name with the ending are still findable. To try several candidates in one pass, use the bulk domain name search.
-
Yes. It runs on an authorisation code and the registry asks for no documents.
For a programme that repeats each year, schedule the move outside the campaign month: a short interruption right after an announcement can land on the busiest hour of the appeal. Confirm you can reach the mailbox receiving donation notifications, then start from the domain transfer page.
Ready to Claim Your .giving Domain?
Type a name and see in seconds whether it is free on .giving. If it is taken, we list close alternatives right away.
Get Help for .giving Domain Registration
Need help registering a .giving domain? Our team is ready to assist.