You asked. We’re Answering.
Thank you for submitting such thoughtful questions during the webinar—we truly appreciate your engagement and your patience as we compiled our responses.
Where appropriate, we’ve drawn directly from the Giving USA report to ensure the use of the most concise and research-backed terminology. Some responses include direct quotes from the report and related member materials.
Will this session be recorded?
The webinar was recorded and is available to watch here. If you’re short on time, we’ve also put together a detailed press release and a 5-minute highlight video to help you catch up on the key findings.
Will the slides be shared?
We’re unable to share the presentation deck directly. As a member firm, we have the privilege of presenting the data in real time and encouraging audience members to explore the full Giving USA report, along with an extensive library of related products and resources, available for subscription here.
CFRE credit – is the webinar listed under Campbell & Company?
Yes, the on-demand webinar listing—where you’ll be able to access the credit information—is available now. The title of the offering is “Giving USA 2025: A Forum on Philanthropy.” Since the webinar was 90 minutes, we’ve decided to up the credit to 1.5.
How do you approach panelist diversity, both in terms of personal background and professional experience?
We strive to feature nonprofit leaders who represent a wide range of lived experiences, personal backgrounds, and professional perspectives across the sector. We’re always looking to improve and appreciate your input as we plan future events. If you have suggestions for panelists who would bring valuable and diverse perspectives to the conversation, please don’t hesitate to email us names or LinkedIn profiles at info@campbellcompany.com.
How is all this data collected? Tax records? Surveys?
Quoting from the report, most of Giving USA’s annual estimates are based on econometric analyses and tabulations of tax data, economic indicators, and demographics.
Does this include political giving?
No, the Giving USA report is focused solely on charitable giving.
Do you compare election years vs. not in giving?
Giving USA does not compare giving in election years to giving in non-election years per se, but there are now multiple pieces of evidence suggesting that political giving does not have a significant negative effect on charitable giving.
Is GUSA tracking nontraditional donations such as GoFundMe campaigns and other donations that may not funnel through 501(c)(3)s?
The current methodology for GUSA does not account for giving to and through platforms such as GoFundMe, except those campaigns in which the recipient is a 501(c)(3) organization.
Is this data broken down by state?
No, however, there are regional organizations such as community foundations and regional associations of grantmakers that report on giving in local communities and regions.
Is there any data for the breakdown by age, location, or other individual attributes/identities within individual giving?
For more information on giving by generation, please refer to the Giving USA Special Report Giving by Generation. At the back of the GUSA report, there is a list of sources of philanthropic information, which includes a variety of demographic reports.
Do you have a companion chart that lists inflation-adjusted dollars?
Yes, GUSA reports on both current and inflation-adjusted dollars. When adjusted for inflation, total giving in 2024 grew by 3.3% over 2023.
How is Public Society Benefit defined?
According to the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities, the public-society benefit subsector includes the following categories: civil rights, social action, and advocacy; community improvement and capacity building; science and technology; social science; and public and societal benefit. A few examples of what is included in this category are: United Way, Jewish Federation, and ACLU. Public society benefit is also the category under which the national, or commercial, donor-advised fund sponsors (such as Fidelity Charitable) fall.
Where do social justice organizations fall?
They are typically accounted for in the Public-Society Benefit category. The Public-Society Benefit subsector includes civil rights, advocacy, community improvement, and voluntarism organizations such as the ACLU, United Ways, Junior Leagues, and Jewish Federations. Many of these organizations aggregate donations and redistribute them for public benefit. Donor advised funds managed by financial institutions like Vanguard and Fidelity are included here.
The giving by foundations estimate includes giving by family foundations — is that correct?
In most cases, yes.
Does the Foundations category include DAFs?
Gifts to DAFs held at community foundations would be counted under giving TO foundations. However, we treat DAF giving as pass-through giving and include only the net of grants into DAFs minus grants from DAFs among our recipients; this ensures we do not double count those gifts, as they are counted at the charity which receives them from the DAF. On the sources side, we count DAF giving only at the original gift (which is almost always individual, though there are some corporate-ran DAFs).
If Public-Society Benefit includes DAFs from financial institutions, what other DAFs are counted in Individual?
Some DAFs will be counted in public society benefit, but there’s actually DAFs in a lot of different categories. While the national DAFs are counted under public society benefit, and DAFs held at community foundations are included under foundations, there are many single-purpose or single-organization support DAFs among all the subsectors (e.g., a DAF held at a university would be under education). Additionally, only the net of DAF grants – money TO DAFs subtracting money FROM DAFs – is counted under recipients. This approach ensures that donations are classified by the area they benefit rather than the intermediary vehicle used to facilitate the giving.
Do donors who give through family foundations count in both individuals and foundations? Or just one or the other?
Donors who give through family foundations are accounted for in the Giving by Individuals category when they give to the foundation. The recipient category, in this case, is Giving to Foundations. Giving by Foundations accounts for grants made by foundations. As most foundations operate by granting from asset growth, as opposed to pass-through style granting, Giving USA treats these income streams separately, with incoming money to foundations counting as coming from individuals, while the outgoing money is treated as being from foundations. There are exceptions made for known pass-through foundations, as well as for DAFs held at community foundations.
Are the mega donor dollars included in the individual numbers or under foundations?
The gift is attributed to its source so, in most cases that will be in the Giving by Individuals.
Does education only refer to giving to formal institutions/schools or orgs that provide education support services?
No, other organizations with educational goals outside the scope of schools or formal institutions themselves can also fall under education, though schools and universities do represent most organizations in this category.
Can you break out philanthropy for mental health from Healthcare?
Giving USA does not estimate giving to any specific subcategory within our reported categories, including Giving to Health.
Does corporate giving include in-kind? Like gifts of pharmaceuticals?
Yes, it includes all forms of giving from corporations and corporate foundations.
What is the source of the corporate giving increase? Corporate Foundations? CSR? Marketing/sponsorships?
Corporate giving reached a record high of $44.4 billion in 2024, marking a 9.1% increase in current dollars (6% after inflation). This growth was primarily driven by strong pre-tax corporate profits and robust GDP performance. According to Giving USA, the increase reflects both direct cash contributions from companies and giving through corporate foundations, as well as in-kind donations—particularly large-scale contributions of pharmaceutical products. While the report does not disaggregate corporate giving into CSR, sponsorships, and marketing-specific categories, the increase appears to be concentrated in more formalized channels of philanthropy such as foundation grants and product donations, rather than marketing or brand-based sponsorships. During roughly the same timeframe as corporate giving’s recent growth, we have also seen similar growth in pharmaceutical donations through patient-assistance plans, tracked in Giving USA as “Giving TO Individuals”, though we do not know if these two trends are directly linked.
Do we think corporate will continue to grow CSR/philanthropy given the pressures from the current administration to change their priorities?
Looking ahead, the future of corporate philanthropy will continue to be closely tied to economic conditions rather than federal policy alone. While strong profits have fueled recent growth, there are new legislative proposals under consideration—including one that would establish a 1% minimum giving threshold based on pre-tax profits in order to qualify for charitable tax deductions . If implemented, such a policy could institutionalize more consistent giving patterns across industries. However, it could also pose challenges for smaller firms. Political pressure from the current administration may influence how corporations frame their giving priorities, but unless there is a significant economic downturn or regulatory shift, the outlook for continued corporate giving in 2025 remains cautiously optimistic.
For corporate giving, do you have breakdowns by sector (e.g., tech companies, food and beverage, etc.)?
The Giving USA 2025 report does not provide a breakdown of corporate giving by industry sector, such as technology, food and beverage, or financial services. Instead, it presents aggregate figures for all corporate contributions.
What percentage of individual giving is attributed to high-net-worth individuals vs everyday givers?
According to the Fundraising Effectiveness Project, major and supersize donors gave about three quarters of total charitable contributions in 2024 while representing less than three percent of all donors. Though Giving USA does not disaggregate giving by wealth or income levels, this is largely in line with recent tax data which shows roughly the same percentage of itemized giving coming from households reporting $200,000 or more in income (and around half of itemized giving coming from households reporting $1 million or more in income).
What is the % of households giving in either 2023 or 2024?
The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy’s Philanthropy Panel Study found that only around half of American households reported giving to charity in 2020, the most recent year for which data is available, down from 66 percent of households in 2000.
Why are bequests down?
The increases and decreases in bequest giving are driven by timing, e.g., when estates are settled. Bequest giving is highly volatile year over year, and so any trends typically require several years to become clearer in the data.
Do we know whether/how bequest giving correlates with death rates?
Is this related to pandemic-related deaths? Bequest giving was $45.84 billion, roughly 8% of total giving, down 1.6% in current dollars (–4.4% inflation-adjusted). Giving USA notes bequest numbers are inherently volatile, influenced by the timing of large estates. While the number of deaths does play some role in bequest giving, we tend to see things like wealth and market fluctuations playing a larger role in the annual variations.
Do donations to community foundations, United Way, and other collective funds count twice?
Giving USA’s methodology nets DAF inflows/outflows with recipient grants to avoid double counting. For community foundations and United Ways, contributions and subsequent grants through donor-advised funds are counted just once.
Are the multiple donations to the same org, or multiple gifts to multiple orgs?
The report tracks total giving per source, not transaction count. It does not distinguish between one donor giving twice to the same organization versus once to multiple—it totals $ per donor category.
How does this breakdown for gifts over $50K (e.g., $100K, $1 million, $5 million, 8-figure gifts)?
The public summary doesn’t provide detailed gift‑size buckets. However, it notes mega-gifts totaled $11.72 billion, which included all known gifts in excess of $600 million in 2024.
Does change in donors correlate with the change in tax deductions (standard deduction)?
The expansion of the standard deduction in 2018 reduced itemizing and contributed to fewer charitable filers, as well as contributing to a drop of giving – current estimates are that individual giving fell by around $15 billion annually as a result. So yes, donor decline shows a correlation with the standard deduction increase enacted in 2018.
Are you seeing foundations starting to step up to the plate to increase payouts beyond the base 3%?
Minimum distribution for private foundations is 5% of assets/year historically (not 3%). No public update suggests higher payouts in 2024, though some spend-down foundations double or triple their payouts, independently of the 5% rule.
If not, how can we as a field help show them the urgency of increasing payout rates?
Highlight publicly announced spend-down (or partial spend-down) models (e.g. Gates, Skoll, Levitt, Compton, Stupski, Ivey Foundations). Advocate that front-loaded grantmaking or accelerated spending aligns with urgent societal needs today.
Are we still seeing greater giving from fewer people?
Yes. Total giving hit record highs, but donor count dropped 4.5% (According to FEP), continuing a multi‑year trend.
Is this a trend you’re seeing more broadly: families including young adult children in giving decisions?
GUSA does not report on this trend. However, Fidelity Charitable’s Family Giving Traditions Study reports that families are talking more about giving now. Approximately two-fifths of all respondents characterized their family’s giving style growing up as “consultative” (one person received input from the family but made the final decision) or “democratic” (decisions are made together as a family). However, today nearly three-fourths of respondents reported that their own families take a “consultative” or “democratic” approach to philanthropic decisions.
What do the panelists think of the “Half my DAF” movement?
Brian Zumbano (panelist): If there’s a troubling trend that last year’s report indicates, it’s just this. More concentrated high-wealth individuals are making mega-gifts, and those funds go to private foundations and DAFs. We’re seeing that very much so [at San Diego Foundation]. Fifty years ago, if you wanted to open a DAF, you partnered with a community foundation. Now, we see those DAF providers moving over to corporate partners like Fidelity Charitable, the fourth largest nonprofit in America. TIAA is the second. The wealth is continuing ally being held at banks, essentially. It’s a very troubling trend. So, is there a call to action for us (community foundations)? Yes, very much so. We must partner with donors who want to get those dollars out into their communities. Our goal is to get dollars out the door from donor advised funds. If that’s half, that’s fine.
Are there new models for donor gift tables/pyramids that we should be using for campaign planning?
Ideally a gift table for a campaign is built to reflect the shape and size of an organization’s donor base, as well as the financial and non-financial goals the organization has set for the campaign. For example, if there is a goal to leverage the campaign to build a broader base of support or strengthen the middle of the pyramid, the table should reflect that goal and the campaign should be resourced accordingly with staffing and systems to support that work. The reality is that in many campaigns, the 80/20 rule has shifted to 90/10 (and in some cases 95/5) – meaning that fewer donors are contributing the majority of gifts to the campaign. Some of this shift is an outcome of where organizations have dedicated their time and resources (i.e., to engage those who have the potential to make the largest gifts). We encourage the use of wealth screening and capacity/gap analyses to determine where the greatest areas of opportunity are in developing and deepening donor support, while also ensuring the campaign strategy is inclusive of all who wish to participate.
Does mobile giving indicate just using phone to donate (vs a computer) or does it tie into giving via mobile platforms/apps?
Mobile giving in Giving USA’s “Giving by Generation” report refers broadly to any giving that happens via a mobile device, not just donations made on phones rather than computers. It encompasses several methods: Mobile-optimized web giving – donors complete gifts through donation pages optimized for smartphones and tablets. Text-to-give or SMS donating – where donors text keywords to shortcodes to make small gifts billed to their phone plan. App-based donations – giving directly through dedicated nonprofit apps or platforms.
Where can we find that Giving by Generation report?
The Giving by Generation report is available for purchase here. Packed with valuable insights, the report explores how Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, and Boomers each approach charitable giving. It highlights generational differences in giving amounts and preferences, volunteering habits, communication styles, and how technology and the COVID-19 pandemic have influenced donor behavior.
Last month, our Digital Donor Engagement team leveraged report findings to present, “From Gen Z to Boomers,” which you can watch here. The presentation deck is also available for download.
What are sources for the “14% to nonprofits” estimate?
The figure is sourced from an April 1, 2025 article by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, “The Great Wealth Transfer: Will it Be Good for Nonprofits?” The article cites data from a December 2024 report by Cerulli Associates, “Cerulli Anticipates $124 Trillion in Wealth Will Transfer Through 2048.”
Where can we find that Giving USA report referencing DAFs?
The Giving USA Special Report on Donor Advised Funds is now available for purchase here. This new special report analyzes $74 billion in grant funds going to over 240,000 organizations, answering important questions like: What types of organizations receive grants from DAFs?; How have DAF trends changed over time?; How do trends differ among various types of DAF sponsoring organizations – for example, how might granting patterns at community foundations differ from grants at other types of DAF-sponsoring organizations such as national funds or single-issue charities?
This information is updated annually in the Giving USA full report in a chapter on DAFs, introduced to the book following the release of the special report.
However, if you subscribe today to Giving USA, you’ll not only receive this Special Report for free, you’ll also receive access to all of Giving USA’S digital content – including previous years’ Annual Reports and special reports.
If you’d like to dig deeper into any of these topics, please don’t hesitate to reach out to Carrie Dahlquist directly for a one-on-one conversation.
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