Is the Good News From ‘Giving USA’ Momentum for 2025?

Charities received $592.5 billion in donations in 2024, a 3.3 percent increase over 2023, after adjusting for inflation, according to the most recent “Giving USA” report, whose key findings were released Tuesday. The report, which takes a comprehensive look at U.S. philanthropy, noted that overall, it was a good year for giving, with only one major cause — religion — seeing an inflation-adjusted decline in giving.

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This may be small comfort to nonprofits that in 2025 have already seen a significant drop in federal funding, more than 20,000 layoffs, increased demand for services, and market uncertainty that has led some donors to pull back.

But Una Osili, an associate dean at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, which compiles the research for the report, says there are important takeaways nonprofits can draw from last year’s data as they navigate 2025.

Chief among them: The economy ended 2024 in a strong position. This may lead both foundations and individual donors who give from market gains to be generous. Osili admits, however- that 2025 is somewhat different from past cycles of economic contraction.

“There’s a lot of uncertainty, a lot of volatility, especially on financial markets,” she says. “When you’re not sure exactly what’s happening and the news is changing, that sometimes leads to donors just being uncertain and not acting. Uncertainty can dampen giving.”

In interviews, many fundraisers have told the Chronicle that their organization’s 2024 fundraising results were good, but that uncertainty was leading to mixed results this year. Some donors are stepping up to fill gaps, while others have pulled back. Some have shifted their giving to causes they feel need more help. Most nonprofits expressed concern about the second half of 2025. They’re worried an economic slide coupled with lingering uncertainty will dampen giving when nonprofits need it most.

2024 Giving, by the Numbers

Last year marked a return to typical giving patterns, says Jon Bergdoll, managing director for Giving USA. The pandemic and the high inflation of recent years were atypical, he says, which meant giving patterns didn’t always align with traditional models. In 2024, things lined up as expected.

“The fundamentals of giving are still working like they historically have in the U.S.,” Bergdoll says. “We’ve been through a lot of changes, and there’s potentially more on the horizon, but it is important to take comfort in that we are still seeing the same things move and shift giving that 20 years ago moved and shifted giving.”

One big thing is the economy, which Osili describes as “outperforming expectations” last year.

“People give when there is that sense of financial and economic security,” Osili says. “And taken together, 2024 was certainly a strong year, especially when you bring in the financial market side of things.”

Strong performance by companies, particularly in the tech sector, pushed corporate giving up 6 percent, after adjusting for inflation. Individual giving was up 5 percent. Foundation giving was down by half a percent. Bequests were down 4.4 percent — but Bergdoll noted bequests are historically volatile because the data can be shifted “by a single billionaire passing away.”

The share of giving by each source remained fairly stable over the past two years. In 2024, individuals accounted for the largest share of giving, 66 percent, followed by foundations at 19 percent, bequests at 8 percent, and corporations at 7 percent.

However, there is a long-term trend of a smaller share of charitable dollars coming from individuals. Back in 1984, individuals’ share of the giving was 82 percent. “Giving USA” doesn’t track the number of donors, but other reports have documented the declining number of Americans who give to charity.

The nonprofits the Chronicle spoke with have seen that in their fundraising.

The number of donors who support Joybound, a pet shelter in Northern California, has declined, says Lisa Moore, chief development officer. She says the drop isn’t significant but that the number has continued to go down, even as average gift size has increased.

“That’s why we are working so diligently to expand our community engagement, our volunteer work, to get new audiences and new friends of the organization committed who, in turn, translate into future funders,” she says.

The “Giving USA” data for corporations painted a rosy picture. Giving by businesses was “the highest that it’s been in the last 40 years,” says Wendy McGrady, chair of Giving USA. “It’s up 6 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars. It’s still, though, the smallest piece of the pie.”

Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose regularly polls corporations about their giving. The group’s data for 2024 suggested companies in the tech sector and consumer staples, such as toilet paper or food, were likely to have increased their giving, whereas some companies focused on luxury goods, such as fancy electronics or travel, and financial services, had decreased giving, according to Kate Stobbe, CECP’s director of corporate insights.

While inflation-adjusted giving by foundations was down, most organizations would not have felt the drop, because in current dollars, foundations gave 2.4 percent more. Many of the fundraisers the Chronicle spoke with described donations from foundations as good in 2024.

It’s important to remember that foundations have increased their giving a lot since the pandemic, Osili says. She says last year’s inflation-adjusted drop is more akin to foundation giving “not growing as much as it did.”

Giving to various causes increased almost across the board. The biggest jumps were in giving to public-society benefit, 16.1 percent; international affairs, 14.3 percent; and education, 9.9 percent. The public society benefit category includes organizations like the United Way as well as commercial donor-advised funds, which have increased in popularity as contribution vehicles.

Compassion International had its best fundraising year ever in 2024, says Mark Hanlon, chief development officer. He noted that the group received some outlier gifts, but even taking those out, the organization had strong growth, which he attributed to the group’s ongoing engagement with donors.

At Brown University, giving was up, due in part to the end of a capital campaign that started in 2014. That helped the university keep annual donors engaged in giving, says Sergio Gonzalez, senior vice president for advancement. “It was not only the larger gifts that really were transformative but the cumulative giving from all,” he says. “Those dollars are critically important.”

The causes that fared the worst included religion, which was down 1 percent after adjusting for inflation, gifts to foundations, which rose half a percent, and gifts to health and human services, which both rose 2 percent.

Again, because the 1 percent drop in religious giving is adjusted for inflation , many houses of worship would have experienced it as a small uptick. Giving increased 1.9 percent in real dollars.

The Emory Fellowship United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., saw an increase in fundraising in 2024. That was the result of the church’s pivot last year to focus more on thanking donors and creating a culture of abundance that leaned into the philanthropic priorities of the congregation, including housing, food insecurity, and youth development, says lead pastor Joe Daniels.

Focusing on issues that the congregation values could be important when it comes to religious giving, says McGrady, the Giving USA chair. She notes that only giving to churches, synagogues, mosques, and other houses of worship is included in this category.

“Just because I’m inspired by my faith to give doesn’t mean I’m giving it to a church,” McGrady says. “My faith inspires me, so I give to homelessness, I give to education. I give to international. And the next person does something different.”

What 2024 Data Means for 2025

This year has been marked by federal funding cuts, stock-market volatility, and fear about a possible recession, which can make it hard to rejoice in good numbers from 2024. However, there are some bright spots lurking in what seems like old data. The first is that the positive economy of 2024 should bolster foundation giving in 2025.

“Foundations give from a trailing average of the value of their assets,” McGrady says. “We’ve had almost a decade of strong market growth, but particularly that 23.3 percent last year is going to help their average in terms of their giving this year. My hope is that foundations early this year were in a good position and will be able to respond to some of the need.”

Another bright spot: Fundraisers put in a lot of work communicating to donors the stories that inspired them to give at the levels they did in 2024, McGrady says. Taking that same energy into 2025 will be important.

“The things that we did as fundraisers and as nonprofits last year to produce those kinds of numbers — those are the kinds of things we need to be doing more of this year,” McGrady says. “Close, consistent communication with stakeholders and talking about the impacts of funding cuts on their organization is really critical.”

Joybound

“Giving USA” data goes back decades, which allows the organization to see what happens to giving during periods of economic turmoil. Osili says that historically Americans continue to give during economic crises. She says the nonprofits that have raised the most money in down economies “leaned into their engagement strategy, sharing how the organization is navigating these uncertain times, making the donors part of that experience so they know what the organization is grappling with.”

Whether giving rises or falls in 2025 will depend on year-end fundraising. Osili notes that consumer confidence was high in 2024, and the markets performed well in the last quarter of the year. For 2025, that’s still unknown.

“We still have quite a lot of room because what happens at the end of the year is what really does end up affecting a lot of giving,” she says. “Whether it’s how financial markets perform towards the end of the year, the overall growth, what happens in the labor market and the housing market, all of those factors will come together.”

Ripple Effects of Government Cuts

Nonprofits are worried — both about how much money will be coming in and the level of demand for their services.

Changes in federal funding are a big deal for human-services organizations. The Mid-Ohio Food Collective, a food bank that serves more than 20 counties from rural Appalachia to urban centers like Columbus, is worried about potential funding cuts to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and what they will mean for the people the food bank serves.

“There’s been millions and millions of dollars in cuts to the food that was going to be coming to food banks,” says Matt Habash, the group’s CEO. “For every meal we give out in the food-bank world, SNAP is nine meals. So you cut SNAP and there’s no food there from the private sector to make that up.”

Even at organizations that don’t get a lot of federal funding, like Compassion International, the government cuts have ripple effects. The international aid organization serves people who in the past benefited from the funding that was cut. “If there were interventions already being done through aid funding, and that has now stopped, then we have to step in and use some of the funds that were planned for other child-development activities,” Hanlon, the group’s chief development officer, says.

The uncertainty surrounding government support also makes it hard to know what to ask for from foundations and major donors, says Roger Schulman, CEO of the Fund for Educational Excellence, a nonprofit that aims to close equity gaps for students in Baltimore City, Md., schools.

“The gaps that are being left by the clawback of federal dollars as well as the unpredictability of what federal dollars will or will not come in the coming year has made it really hard to understand where philanthropy can make a difference right now in a meaningful way,” Schulman says. “The gap is so big that even our largest foundations can only do so much to help sustain what is.”

The general feeling is it’s going to be a rough year, says Jim Klocke, CEO of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network. Each year, the network surveys its roughly 700 members.

One perennial question on the survey: What do you think your financial condition will be like a year from now?

“Usually you get more organizations that say my financial picture will be better in a year. Some say worse, but more say better,” Klocke says. “This time, almost everybody said they expect their financial condition to be worse a year from now. It’s a pretty much across-the-board concern.”

Some organizations are worried about their donors shifting priorities. Bergdoll, with Giving USA, says in times of crises, human-services organizations, which feed and house people, often see a bump in donations.

At Joybound, the pet shelter, some supporters have started to shift their giving.

“You might be a donor who’s passionate about animals,” says Susan Lee Vick, Joybound’s CEO. “But when our local food bank was defunded and you have to choose between children being fed or children having the benefits of the human-animal bond, you may redirect funding to make sure those kids go to bed with full tummies at night.”

Uncertainty about government policy is also affecting corporate giving. A proposed provision in the current tax legislation would require corporations to give 1 percent of pretax profit before they could get a charitable tax deduction. Stobbe, at CECP, says many companies are thinking about how their philanthropy might change if this becomes law.

“Our companies are doing scenario planning to see how big of an impact this would have on their work and if they’re willing to take that risk and continue to give,” she says. “Or if they’re going to pivot to maybe different social-impact channels.”

Signs of Hope

While there is worry, it’s not all doom and gloom. Carla Willis, a managing partner at the fundraising consultancy Washburn & McGoldrick, notes that many of the firm’s clients are still doing well and realize there is still cause for optimism.

“Their donors are showing them that there’s reason for them to feel positive,” Willis says. “We keep reading about these big gifts that are being made. We’re pleased to be seeing there are more coalitions and institutions and organizations coming together to learn and delve into some of these issues together because there’s more power in numbers.”

Some donors are stepping up to aid organizations that have had funding cut. After the Classical Theatre of Harlem lost a $60,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant in early May, creative producing director Ty Jones put out a call for help.

“And the community responded,” Jones says. “We had approximately 500 people who donated within a short period of time, and the average donation was about $100. We were able to completely fill the gap of the $60K.”

Jones doesn’t expect the NEA to give the organization money next year, and the group is trying to figure out how to raise the same amount for the next year. Jones’s goal is to maintain the theater’s level of support.

“We’re not going to be looking at growth this year,” he says. “Of course, we hope that we’ll be able to raise more money, but let’s just make sure that we hunker down, strategize, and maintain where we are.”

The Mid-Ohio Food Collective is trying to shift its messaging to persuade local donors to step up.

“The cavalry is not coming from the federal government,” Habash, the CEO, says. “Even our state government has cut back on the amount of money they’re giving us. The messaging for us is really about local. We’ve got to convince people locally to do something.”