{"id":17198,"date":"2026-06-23T16:02:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:02:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17198"},"modified":"2026-06-23T16:02:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-23T16:02:23","slug":"donors-gave-us-charities-617-billion-in-2025-according-to-the-new-giving-usa-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/siliconvalleymovingpost.com\/?p=17198","title":{"rendered":"Donors gave US charities $617 billion in 2025, according to the new Giving USA report"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

By RASHEEDA CHILDRESS of the Chronicle of Philanthropy<\/strong><\/p>\n

In a year marked by economic uncertainty and political turbulence, philanthropic donations rose last year, according to an authoritative annual report on American giving.<\/p>\n

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Donors gave U.S. charities $617 billion in 2025, an inflation-adjusted 3% increase over last year, according to \u201cGiving USA 2026: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2025.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bequests last year jumped by nearly 17%, the third year of the last four to clock double-digit increases in this form of giving. The trend could signal the beginning of the long predicted Great Wealth Transfer \u2014 in which baby boomers begin passing their enormous wealth to their children and charities. Overall, giving increased among all categories: corporations, living individuals, bequests, and foundations.<\/p>\n

Strong markets and big donors boost giving<\/h4>\n

A strong stock market and economic growth contributed to the uptick, despite upheaval caused by federal cuts, says Wendy McGrady, chair of Giving USA.<\/p>\n

All donor types stepped up to give amid the turmoil, McGrady notes, because charities made their needs known. \u201cThose that were effective in sharing their story saw their donors respond,\u201d McGrady says.<\/p>\n

The robust giving was propelled by positive economic factors, says Jon Bergdoll, interim director of data and research partnerships at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, which conducts the research for the report. \u201cWhether you\u2019re looking at the S&P 500 or the financial markets, they saw really, really robust growth,\u201d Bergdoll says. \u201cThat has a pretty direct contribution to wealth and asset sizes of companies, foundations, the wealthy and helped drive a lot of that increase.\u201d<\/p>\n

All types of donors increased their giving in 2025, and giving to most causes also rose. Education nonprofits saw an 8.9% uptick, organizations in the \u201cpublic-society benefit\u201d category had an 8.7% increase, and environment and animal nonprofits were up 8.2%. Smaller increases were seen for charities with missions involving arts, culture and humanities (4.7%); health (3.3%); human services (2.6%); and international (1. 4%). However, giving to religious groups was marginally lower, down 0.2% when adjusted for inflation.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Several nonprofits the Chronicle spoke to noted that they raised more money last year and that success was reliant on big gifts, which in turn are buoyed by a strong stock market. \u201cThe market has become a larger and larger predictor of giving,\u201d Bergdoll at IU says. \u201cAnd I would anticipate that to continue. That growing reliance means that the unpredictability of the markets is going to start bleeding into an unpredictability in giving as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Giving USA does not measure the number of donors who give, over the years, the share of dollars from individuals has decreased. In 1985, 80% of dollars came from individuals; now it is just 64%.<\/p>\n

Big donors loom large in one category, megagifts, which are defined as contributions that exceed 0.1% of total giving that year. In 2025 megagifts were those amounting to $600 million or more. There were $19.2 billion worth of megagifts, roughly 4% of all dollars given by individuals. MacKenzie Scott\u2019s $6.65 billion in contributions represented a third of all mega-giving in 2025. Michael Bloomberg who donated $4.3 billion, Bill Gates, who gave away at $3.7 billion, and Paul Allen\u2019s bequest of $3.1 billion all qualified as megadonors.<\/p>\n

Indications of Great Wealth Transfer start<\/h4>\n

For years, pundits have predicted a great transfer of wealth that would move $18 trillion from baby boomers and older donors to younger generations and possibly to charities. Three of the past four years have shown big growth in bequests, which may indicate that the great wealth transfer has begun.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Bergdoll recognizes that people get excited over the prospect of this wealth moving to charities but says more data is needed to definitively declare that the transfer has started. Giving by bequests in the past 10 years \u201coutpaced overall giving,\u201d Bergdoll says, but the number of IRS estate reports from the past few years is still small.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really tough \u2014 just from one or two years of data (to know if the great wealth transfer has begun),\u201d he says. \u201cWe need a little bit more data to feel comfortable saying, \u2018Oh, it has started. It\u2019s off to the races.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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However, several nonprofits, including the Christian missionary group InterVarsity and the international charity CARE, are putting more resources into planned giving.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know a big wealth transfer is happening so we have also been growing our planned giving program,\u201d says Sarah Taylor Peace, CARE\u2019s chief revenue officer. Taylor Peace says CARE has received multimillion-dollar bequests from donors who had given small gifts over decades.<\/p>\n

Patrick Schmitt, co-CEO of estate planning company FreeWill, notes that there are more than 70 million baby boomers, and it\u2019s imperative to get on their radar. Many are already giving qualified charitable distributions from retirement accounts.<\/p>\n

Federal shifts drive giving<\/h4>\n

The federal government\u2019s cuts to USAID and international aid programs deeply affected organizations like CARE, but donors responded generously when the organization asked for help.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe raised a lot of private (funds). We actually had our highest ever fiscal year,\u201d Taylor Peace says, \u201cmostly coming from individual givers responding to the fact that lots of the traditional funding wasn\u2019t there and wanting to make sure we could continue to run our crisis humanitarian work.\u201d<\/p>\n

When there\u2019s a lot of bad news and negative noise in the world, donors want to \u201cdo something hopeful,\u201d Taylor Peace says. Offering donors a positive way to contribute to making things better for others resonated with donors, she says.<\/p>\n

Donors also responded generously to fundraising appeals that focused on federal policy shifts. Mollie Marsh-Heine, chief development officer at the Natural Resources Defense Council, says donors at all giving levels responded well to appeals to help the environmental organization fight back against the current administration\u2019s hostility toward environmental regulations.<\/p>\n

Donations to foundations drop<\/h4>\n

There was a sharp drop in giving to foundations, which fell nearly 18.3% in inflation-adjusted dollars. While this seems steep, Bergdoll notes that foundations had a near-record-high 2024, in which giving grew 32.6%. \u201cIn raw dollar terms, they still had a very strong\u201d 2025, Bergdoll says.<\/p>\n

While news from \u201cGiving USA\u201d was mostly positive, there were some lackluster figures. Corporate giving was up only half a percent. According to Bergdoll, it\u2019s \u201cchallenging\u201d to get a good view of giving by businesses of all sizes.<\/p>\n

The Houston Humane Society said corporate giving remained strong in 2025. But Stark, with UnityPoint Health, noted that some corporate sponsors whose businesses were facing challenges did \u201cback off\u201d last year. Similarly, Susan G. Komen had some companies \u201creduce the amount they were giving\u201d due to economic headwinds, says vice president Andi Hughes.<\/p>\n

Rasheeda Childress is a senior editor at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where you can read the full article. This article was provided to The Associated Press by the Chronicle of Philanthropy as part of a partnership to cover philanthropy and nonprofits supported by the Lilly Endowment. The Chronicle is solely responsible for the content. For all of AP\u2019s philanthropy coverage, visit https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/philanthropy.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more Texas doctor charged in $89M fraud case as administration pushes healthcare crackdown<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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