While charitable giving reached record highs in 2025, new Giving USA data suggests fewer Americans are taking part.
Last week, the Giving Institute released Giving USA 2026: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2025.
The report is based on research from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and is the longest-running study of philanthropy in the United States.
As the country approaches its 250th anniversary, Giving USA offers a comprehensive view of charitable giving trends. This year’s findings are both encouraging and concerning.
One of the report’s most encouraging findings is that charitable giving reached a record $617.2 billion in 2025, marking the first time total giving exceeded $600 billion.
This reflects a 3.0% inflation-adjusted increase compared with 2024. When adjusted for inflation, 2025 ranks as the second-highest year on record, behind only 2021.
Giving USA reported that this $617.2 billion total in charitable contributions came from the following sources:
Of note, bequest giving increased by 16.6% in inflation-adjusted dollars between 2024 and 2025, while foundation giving rose by 3.0%.
Foundation giving has also grown steadily over the past 15 years, increasing from $60.46 billion (inflation-adjusted) in 2010 to $117.15 billion in 2025. This sustained growth shows the expanding role of foundations in supporting the charitable sector.
Giving USA also reported growth in inflation-adjusted giving across seven of the nine charitable subsectors.
The largest increases were in education, public-society benefit organizations, and environmental and animal organizations. Giving to religion remained relatively stable, while giving to foundations declined.
Charitable giving was distributed across recipient categories as follows:
While positive at first glance, these results also raise important concerns, chief among them the declining share of charitable giving that comes from individual donors.
Between 1986 and 1990, individuals accounted for 80% of all charitable contributions, reflecting broad-based civic engagement. By 2025, that share had fallen to 64%.
This trend is even more concerning given that individual giving is increasingly concentrated among a smaller number of wealthier donors.
Compared with GDP growth and the performance of the S&P 500 Index, Giving USA results suggest that growth in charitable giving has not kept pace with broader economic growth.
Similarly, individual giving as a share of disposable personal income has declined, reaching 1.7% in 2025 compared with peak levels of 2.4% in both 2000 and 2005.
In our 2023 BBB Give.org Donor Trust Report on Donor Participation, 59% of respondents with household incomes above $70,000 who had stopped giving to charities agreed with the statement: “there are people out there with significantly more money who should give to charity instead of me.”
Other findings from the report suggest that a leading reason people do not contribute is simply that they do not feel they have been asked. Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of building trusted community and broadening the ask.
As we approach our nation’s 250th anniversary, these trends highlight the importance of rebuilding broad-based participation and strengthening a culture of charitable giving.
We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include:
Finally, remember to let us know by going to give.org/charity-inquiry if you are interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.
