In 2025, charitable giving surpassed $600 billion for the first time in the 71 years that the Giving USA Foundation has conducted its annual study of Americans’ generosity.
The increase, which outpaced inflation, is among key findings in “Giving USA 2026: The Annual Report on Philanthropy” for the year 2025. Created by academics and staff at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, the report paints a promising but mixed picture of Americans’ giving habits, which were boosted by stock market gains but fell short of the level researchers would have expected in light of the S&P 500’s 16.4% growth.
“In 2025, we had a really strong stock market performance by the end of the year, but there was a lot of variability, a lot of volatility throughout the year,” said Christina Daniken, senior researcher and editor-in-chief for Giving USA, on the First Day Podcast.
“We went through all that issue related to tariffs and tariff negotiations and that caused a lot of hesitation, particularly with individual donors. So the stock market made certain donors very generous but it also led to what we call historically low consumer sentiment. So there were some donors that were a little bit cautious, and that might have dampened some of the giving by individual donors,” Daniken said. “But overall, giving looks strong.”
According to the report, total donations from individuals, bequests, foundations and corporations reached $617.2 billion. Adjusted for inflation, this number represents a 3% increase, nearly matching 2024’s gains as charitable giving recovered from a steep decline experienced in 2022. In a The Conversation article, the report’s lead analyst, Jon Bergdoll, noted that while this growth was “slightly faster than the long-term annual average of 2.7%,” it failed to reach the inflation-adjusted high of 2021.
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“The $617 billion that Americans gave to everything from churches to cat rescues was the second-highest ever in inflation-adjusted terms,” Bergdoll said, “but it fell short of the record set in 2021, when there was a burst of social services giving in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Meanwhile, consumer sentiment, a measurement of how the typical household feels economically, plummeted 21% to the lowest ever recorded.
Here are some key takeaways from the Giving USA report:
Religion still biggest beneficiary, but slipping
Giving USA divides donation recipients into 10 categories. Of those 10, religion retained the top spot, receiving 23% of all gifts, or $151.58 billion. However, when adjusted for inflation, this amount was a slight decrease from the previous year. What’s more, other sectors have been catching up — especially human services, which has seen significant growth since the COVID-19 pandemic. This year, it edged ahead of education to claim the No. 2 spot.
“The largest share of gifts actually went to religion, which is the same as it has been for the 40 years that we’ve been measuring giving to the various subsectors,” Daniken said. “However, giving to religion has grown very slowly in comparison to other subsectors, which means that it’s each year accounting for a smaller and smaller share of the pie of total giving.”
Individuals gave most
By far, the bulk of giving came from individual donors, who provided about $394 billion to charity — more than all three other giving categories combined. This represented about a 4% increase over 2024 and continued a long-term trend of strong giving by individuals. If the bequest and individual categories are combined, the share of giving from individuals was about 74% of all contributions in current dollars.
Bequests skyrocketed
While individuals gave the most, bequests saw the biggest increase, growing by 19% in current dollars to reach $62.18 billion.
“Bequests are actually one of the most interesting stories this year,” said Daniken. “Bequests have had growth of 20% in three of the last four years, so we’re starting to see a bit of an upward trend there.”
According to an Indiana University article about the Giving USA report, bequests have historically seen substantial fluctuation from one year to the next.
“Giving through bequests and by foundations were among the most robust areas for generosity, a continuation of the trends seen in recent years,” said Amir Pasic, Eugene R. Tempel dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, in the article. “This likely is in part a reflection of growing asset values due to the strong performance of financial markets in recent years.”
In addition, the consistent growth of bequests aligns with the idea of the “Great Wealth Transfer,” the name given to the large transfer of wealth currently underway as aging baby boomers hand off their wealth to the next generation.
Foundations’ highs and lows
While most charitable sectors saw at least a small increase in dollars received, foundations experienced a decline of 16.2%. Nevertheless, foundations increased their total giving by 5.7% to $117.15 billion — likely bolstered by stock market gains — achieving an average growth rate among the four giving sources even as fewer donated dollars came in.
As fewer people give, the richest give more
A trend in recent years has been that while the number of households who give to charity has declined, the wealthiest have taken on an increasingly large share of the burden. As the donor pool shrinks, the dollar amount multiplies. This trend has been especially pronounced since the pandemic, and 2025 likewise saw the top donors giving a historically high share.
“There’s a variety of measurements you can use out there to see that the major donors or the ultra high net worths, or however you want to say it, are giving a larger and larger share,” Bergdoll said during a webinar hosted by CCS Fundraising.
In his presentation, Bergdoll noted that in 2025, ultra-high-net-worth individual donors accounted for more than $19 billion in donations, a significant jump from 2024.
“That is in line with where it has been post pandemic. We really see that 2020 is a sea change,” Bergdoll said. “Prior to 2020, it had never hit even $5 billion, and since 2020 we have never been below $10 billion.”
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