The total value of all gifts of $10 million or more fell 38 percent to $17.3 billion from 2021 to 2022, according to a new report from fundraising firm Marts & Lundy. That drop was driven by Bill and Melinda Gates’ $15 billion gift to their foundation in 2021, which went unmatched in 2022. Excluding that extraordinary gift, the total value of contributions of $10 million or more decreased roughly 4 percent from 2021 to 2022. Charities received $17.3 billion from top gifts in 2022, on par with the value they received from those gifts in 2020: $17 billion.
“There’s a resiliency here that’s showing really clearly,” says Phil Hills, chief executive of Marts & Lundy.
Despite the overall year-over-year decrease in the total value of gifts of $10 million or more, the number of these gifts actually increased 3 percent from 2021 to 2022 — rising from 315 to 325 gifts. The most movement happened at the $10 million to $24 million level; donors contributed 40 more gifts at this level in 2022 than they did in 2021. The Gateses’ $15 billion gift to their foundation was 2021’s only contribution of $1 billion or more, but 2022 saw two gifts of that size. However, their combined value — $6.1 billion — was less than half of the Gateses’ gift.
Hills was heartened to see plenty of donors continue to give big, despite the gloomy economic forecast. He encourages fundraisers to take that as a sign to keep asking for the money they need to meet their organization’s goals. “If you can make a really good case and you have a really strong relationship with a donor, there’s no reason you shouldn’t continue to look at where you think you’re going to be,” Hills says.
Marts & Lundy compiled the report using data from the Chronicle’s free database of charitable gifts of $1 million or more from individuals.
Colleges and universities generally netted most of those top-level gifts. That held true in both 2021 and 2022, with higher education receiving 61 percent ($7.46 billion) of those dollars in 2021 and 56 percent ($6.7 billion) in 2022.
But the share they received in 2022 was the smallest ever recorded in this data set, which begins its analysis in 2006. The number of $10 million or more gifts to higher education and their total value both fell from 2021 to 2022 — in each instance by 10 percent. The decrease was powered by a decline in gifts of $25 million to $49 million, which fell from 65 (totaling $1.97 billion) in 2021 to 34 (totaling $1.02 billion) in 2022.
Rumblings of a recession and a chaotic geopolitical outlook may have encouraged some donors to downplay their giving, Hills speculates. It also may have caused some fundraisers to ask their donors for smaller or fewer gifts.
Still, Hills says, “The money is still there.” Fundraisers need to do the leg work to keep donors engaged and committed so that they know they’ll keep giving, even when times are tough.
Health groups netted the second biggest share of all top-level gifts in both 2021 and 2022: 21 percent in both years. But that consistency cloaks an 8 percent increase in the number of top-level gifts given to health organizations — rising from 49 in 2021 to 53 in 2022. However, the total value of these gifts declined 5 percent — from $2.62 billion in 2021 to $2.48 billion in 2022. Even so, health groups received far more top-line gifts than they did in 2020, when their 26 contributions of $10 million or more totaled $868 million.
Among the other findings:
- “Other causes” received the third-largest share of dollars from top gifts — 15 percent — in 2022. Schools and arts, culture, and environment tied for fourth place, winning 4 percent each of this total giving.
- Charities in Washington state received more money than any other state — $5.98 billion — from 12 contributions of $10 million or more made in 2022.
- Charities in California and New York tied for the most top gifts received in 2022: 44.
