Riding the wave of a strong stock market in 2025, philanthropic giving reached $617 billion last year, an inflation-adjusted 3% increase over the previous year, according to the latest Giving USA report, which was released yesterday.

While the S&P 500 spiked more than 16% in 2025 and gross domestic product jumped by 2.2%, massive cuts to nonprofits by the Trump administration, coupled with surging need, complicated the overall economic picture. Yet donors stepped into the breach, with individual giving, giving by foundations and bequests all rising last year, according to “Giving USA 2026: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2025.” The $617 billion figure represents the second-highest yearly total in inflation-adjusted dollars.

The annual Giving USA report offers a broad view of the philanthropy field, highlighting megatrends and identifying seismic shifts in how and to whom donors are giving their money. 

While donations are up, spurred by the stock market hitting record highs and tax changes that incentivized giving, experts point out that many nonprofits are still struggling to make up for federal cuts. The Trump administration’s tax cuts, which went into effect at the start of this year, are also expected to depress charitable giving among wealthier donors, as his previous administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did starting in 2018.

In a webinar for CCS Fundraising, Jon Bergdoll, the interim director of data and research partnerships at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, said that while recent years have been marked by a smaller number of donors giving more money, the coming years will likely see a larger number of donors giving a smaller amount of money due to the tax cuts, which made it easier for small donors to write off charitable money and lowered the tax rate for the wealthiest Americans, decreasing their need to offset those taxes with philanthropic contributions.

“We are expecting the One Big Beautiful Bill Act to be a little bit ‘dollars down, donors up,’ in terms of about a $5 billion a year down…. but adding several million more donors to it,” Bergdoll said. “That said, we don’t anticipate those things coming into play right away…. People aren’t going to change their behaviors for that for several more years.”

He noted that some of the increase in charitable donations in 2025 was likely tied to the impending tax cuts, and likely did not directly contribute to civil society ”because the motivation of that giving [was] purely tax and not need-driven. The bulk of that giving is almost certainly going to go into giving vehicles like foundations and DAFs to be granted out more when the donor was originally planning to give that money away.”

Individual giving remains the largest share of philanthropy, making up 64% of all giving with $394 billion. Foundations gave the second largest amount, making up 19% of giving ($117 billion), followed by bequests, which amounted to 10%  ($62 billion) and corporations, which gave 7%  ($43.67 billion). Bequests made the largest jump — a 20% increase over last year.

“I’m not an economist. I’m not a researcher. I’m a little more willing to go out on the limb. We may be finally seeing the great wealth transfer in action,” Wendy McGrady, president and chief operating officer of The Curtis Group and chair of the Giving USA Foundation, told The Nonprofit Times, referencing the transfer of wealth from aging baby boomers to their children and charities. “And because I’m a practitioner working with nonprofits… my message would be you better be in the game, the planned giving game, if you’re not.”

Giving to religious institutions and causes is the largest collective recipient of charitable donations with $151.58 billion, an increase of 2.4% over 2024. Yet, adjusted for inflation, the $151 billion represents a 0.2% decrease, continuing a downward that began in 2016. Still, a 0.2% decrease is less than last year’s 1% decrease, and overall — even though religious giving is down from 2016 — it is up from 1985, when religious causes, factoring in inflation, received $114 billion.

After religious giving, donors gave most to human services, followed by education, foundations and public-society benefit causes. The subsectors of education, environment and animals and public-society benefit organizations saw the most growth, each increasing around 11%. Meanwhile, giving to foundations decreased by 16%. Giving to human services, health, international affairs and arts and culture each saw increases, as well. 

While donations are up, spurred by the stock market hitting record highs, experts point out that many nonprofits are still struggling to make up for federal cuts. The Trump administration’s tax cuts, which went into effect at the start of this year, are also expected to depress charitable giving, as his previous administration’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did starting in 2018. 

“Despite all of the hubbub in the world, people are still generous,” Gabe Cooper, vice chair of the Giving USA Foundation and founder and CEO of technology firm Virtuous, told The Nonprofit Times. “If I’m a fundraiser, there’s still plenty of folks to go out to and have a conversation with — the sky isn’t falling, right? If I’m a fundraiser, it gives me conviction to sort of lean in and go after it.”