U.S. Charitable Giving Tops $600 Billion for the First Time: Megagifts and Bequests Drive Growth
Last year, U.S. charitable giving was estimated at $617.2 billion, up 5.7% from the year before. The figure comes from this week's Giving USA report, against the backdrop of a strong stock market rebound.
This is also the first time in the 60-year history of the annual Giving USA report that total yearly giving has exceeded $600 billion. After adjusting for inflation, giving rose 3% year over year.
However, the impact of the stock market on deep-pocketed donors was even more pronounced. Individual donors still accounted for the largest share, contributing $394.2 billion, but after inflation adjustment they increased only 1.4%; charitable bequest giving (gifts made after a donor's death) surged 16.6% to an estimated $62.19 billion.
The rise in bequest giving may also be the latest signal of the Great Wealth Transfer. Cerulli Associates estimates that more than $124 trillion in assets will be passed on by 2048, with about $18 trillion directed to charity.
Jon Bergdoll, chief analyst at Giving USA, said it is still impossible to tell how much of the jump in bequest giving comes from this massive transfer of wealth.
But one thing is clearer: wealthy Americans most likely to leave large charitable gifts are also the biggest beneficiaries of the stock market rally. Bergdoll believes bequest giving is usually closely tied to a household's overall net worth, and net worth is in turn linked to market performance.
The report also notes that 'total giving,' which includes foundation and corporate giving, responds more slowly to the stock market and moves more gently up and down. Bergdoll said that, given the market's strong gains in recent years, he had expected giving to rise more sharply. The report compares the two: between 2024 and 2025, the inflation-adjusted S&P 500 rose 13.4%, while the growth rate of total giving in the same period was about one-quarter of that.
Bergdoll partly attributed the gap to a disconnect between nominal wealth and overall giving: GDP growth was weak, and consumer sentiment was at record lows. He said giving comes from a person's sense of financial security, so in an environment where 'the stock market is doing pretty well and GDP is also okay' but the broader economy feels uneasy, individual-level giving may be held back.
He also stressed that if charitable giving moved too closely and one-for-one with stock market swings, it could be bad for the nonprofit sector. He said he would not want giving to rise 20% when the market rises 20%, and likewise would not want giving to fall 20% when the market drops 20%.
Some high-income people are expected to 'pull forward' gifts in 2025 to take advantage of tax breaks that may be reduced under changes tied to 'a major bill.' Bergdoll believes there is indeed some extra giving being brought forward, but it is still limited relative to the overall size of giving. The report estimates that donors gave an additional $1.71 billion in 2025 to make fuller use of tax incentives set to expire.
Although U.S. charities received more money, their reliance on 'ultra-high-net-worth' donors is increasing because economic pressure has squeezed the giving capacity of middle-class donors. The report estimates that 9 donors accounted for $22.32 billion of total charitable giving last year. Among them, MacKenzie Scott gave the largest share, at $6.65 billion.
These megagifts, defined as at least 0.1% of total giving, can cause the charitable landscape to shift significantly from year to year. The report says nearly one-third of the increase in bequest giving came from the estate of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who set up a $3.1 billion fund for science and technology research.
Gabe Cooper, vice chair of the Giving USA Foundation, said in an interview that he has mixed feelings. On the one hand, he supports more billionaires using their wealth for charity; on the other, he does not want that dependence to grow too quickly, because the giving behavior of the ultra-wealthy can be more volatile from year to year.
Cooper also focused on heirs. He said that if a billionaire dies and gives $200 million to charity, most of the remaining funds, for example $800 million, will likely go to children, and society needs those heirs to make better decisions about their charitable choices.
