Donation is a gift to a fund or cause, typically for charitable reasons. A donation may take various forms, including cash, services, clothing, food, accommodation, blood or new or used items like charity car donations. Charitable gifts of goods or services are also called gifts in kind.
Donations are transfers, or gifts, given without return consideration. This lack of return consideration means that, in common law, an agreement to make a donation is an "imperfect contract void for want of consideration." Only when the donation is actually made does it acquire legal status as a transfer or property. In civil law jurisdictions, on the contrary, donations are valid contracts, though they may require some extra formalities, such as being done in writing.
Many people often perform extraordinary or unusual challenges or feats in order to encourage people to donate to a particular cause. Such people may already receive corporate or other sponsorship, but need donations from a wider audience in order to achieve their financial goals. Some examples of "charity challenges" include celebrities having their heads tonsured, crossing a continent or an ocean alone or with minimal support, or hitchhiking to Morocco.