In a year marked by economic uncertainty and political turbulence, philanthropic donations rose last year, according to an authoritative annual report on American giving.
Donors gave U.S. charities $617 billion in 2025, an inflation-adjusted 3% increase over last year, according to 鈥淕iving USA 2026: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2025.鈥�
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 鈥� 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.
Strong markets and big donors boost giving
A strong stock market and economic growth contributed to the uptick, despite upheaval caused by federal cuts, says Wendy McGrady, chair of Giving USA.
All donor types stepped up to give amid the turmoil, McGrady notes, because charities made their needs known. 鈥淭hose that were effective in sharing their story saw their donors respond,鈥� McGrady says.
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. 鈥淲hether you鈥檙e looking at the S&P 500 or the financial markets, they saw really, really robust growth,鈥� Bergdoll says. 鈥淭hat has a pretty direct contribution to wealth and asset sizes of companies, foundations, the wealthy and helped drive a lot of that increase.鈥�
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 鈥減ublic-society benefit鈥� 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.
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. 鈥淭he market has become a larger and larger predictor of giving,鈥� Bergdoll at IU says. 鈥淎nd 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.鈥�
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%.
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鈥檚 $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鈥檚 bequest of $3.1 billion all qualified as megadonors.
Indications of Great Wealth Transfer start
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.
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 鈥渙utpaced overall giving,鈥� Bergdoll says, but the number of IRS estate reports from the past few years is still small.
鈥淚t鈥檚 really tough 鈥� just from one or two years of data (to know if the great wealth transfer has begun),鈥� he says. 鈥淲e need a little bit more data to feel comfortable saying, 鈥極h, it has started. It鈥檚 off to the races.鈥欌��
However, several nonprofits, including the Christian missionary group InterVarsity and the international charity CARE, are putting more resources into planned giving.
鈥淲e know a big wealth transfer is happening so we have also been growing our planned giving program,鈥� says Sarah Taylor Peace, CARE鈥檚 chief revenue officer. Taylor Peace says CARE has received multimillion-dollar bequests from donors who had given small gifts over decades.
Patrick Schmitt, co-CEO of estate planning company FreeWill, notes that there are more than 70 million baby boomers, and it鈥檚 imperative to get on their radar. Many are already giving qualified charitable distributions from retirement accounts.
Federal shifts drive giving
The federal government鈥檚 cuts to USAID and international aid programs deeply affected organizations like CARE, but donors responded generously when the organization asked for help.
鈥淲e raised a lot of private (funds). We actually had our highest ever fiscal year,鈥� Taylor Peace says, 鈥渕ostly coming from individual givers responding to the fact that lots of the traditional funding wasn鈥檛 there and wanting to make sure we could continue to run our crisis humanitarian work.鈥�
When there鈥檚 a lot of bad news and negative noise in the world, donors want to 鈥渄o something hopeful,鈥� Taylor Peace says. Offering donors a positive way to contribute to making things better for others resonated with donors, she says.
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鈥檚 hostility toward environmental regulations.
Donations to foundations drop
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%. 鈥淚n raw dollar terms, they still had a very strong鈥� 2025, Bergdoll says.
While news from 鈥淕iving USA鈥� was mostly positive, there were some lackluster figures. Corporate giving was up only half a percent. According to Bergdoll, it鈥檚 鈥渃hallenging鈥� to get a good view of giving by businesses of all sizes.
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 鈥渂ack off鈥� last year. Similarly, Susan G. Komen had some companies 鈥渞educe the amount they were giving鈥� due to economic headwinds, says vice president Andi Hughes.
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Rasheeda Childress is a senior editor at the Chronicle of Philanthropy, where you can read the . 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鈥檚 philanthropy coverage, visit .
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