Beyond the $617 Billion Headline: What Nonprofits Should Take From Giving USA 2026
- Gillia Bakie
- Jun 30
- 6 min read
Updated: Jul 6
June 2026
The latest Giving USA data offers encouraging news: charitable giving in the United States reached an estimated $617.20 billion in 2025, crossing the $600 billion mark for the first time. Giving grew 5.7% in current dollars and 3.0% after inflation, making 2025 the second-highest year on record in inflation-adjusted giving.
The Big Picture: Growth, But Not Equal Growth
Giving USA estimates that individuals, bequests, foundations, and corporations all increased their giving in 2025.
Individuals remained the largest source of giving, contributing $394.2 billion, or roughly 64% of total giving.
Foundations contributed $117.15 billion.
Bequests contributed $62.19 billion.
Corporations contributed $43.67 billion.
Bequests Deserve More Attention
One of the clearest findings from Giving USA 2026 is the rise in bequest giving. Bequests reached an estimated $62.19 billion in 2025, an increase of 19.7% in current dollars and 16.6% after inflation.
For many nonprofits, planned giving remains underdeveloped. It is often treated as a specialized program for large institutions or a future initiative to tackle once annual giving is “fixed.”
But the data suggests that even small and mid-sized organizations should be building the basics now: clear bequest language, simple legacy giving materials, board and staff comfort with planned giving conversations, and consistent reminders that donors can support the organization through their estate plans.
This does not require launching a complex planned giving program overnight. It does require making legacy giving visible, normal, and easy to understand.
Individual Giving Is Still Central
Individuals continue to provide the majority of charitable giving in the United States. In 2025, individual giving reached $394.2 billion, increasing 4.1% in current dollars and 1.4% after inflation.
That is positive, but modest. It also sits within a larger context of economic uncertainty, uneven household confidence, and rising costs for both donors and nonprofits. Mega gifts also complicate the picture. While they are not broken out in the basic Giving USA source-category table, related reporting on the 2025 data shows that gifts of $600 million or more totaled $19.2 billion, or roughly 4% of all dollars given by individuals. MacKenzie Scott’s $6.65 billion in 2025 giving represented about one-third of that mega-giving total. That means headline individual-giving growth can obscure important differences between broad-based donor participation and very large gifts from a small number of donors.
For organizations, this reinforces the importance of segmentation. Some donors may have significant capacity because of appreciated assets, strong investment performance, or long-term wealth accumulation. Others may care deeply about the mission but feel constrained by cost-of-living pressures or uncertainty about the future.
A single broad appeal is unlikely to speak effectively to both groups. Fundraising strategy needs to account for different donor realities: monthly giving for donors who want consistency, stock and asset-based giving for donors with appreciated assets, planned giving for long-term supporters, and major gift conversations for donors with capacity to make transformational commitments.
Foundation Giving Is Growing and Increasingly Complicated
Foundation giving increased to $117.15 billion in 2025, up 5.7% in current dollars and 3.0% after inflation.
But the more important takeaway is not simply that there may be more foundation dollars available. It is that those dollars are rarely distributed through applications alone.
Foundation funding is increasingly relationship-driven. Strong proposals still matter, but they are often not enough on their own. The organizations best positioned for grant funding are usually the ones that have already built trust: with program officers, foundation staff, board members, community partners, peer organizations, and donors who can help validate the work.
The rise of family foundations, donor-advised funds, and other institutional giving vehicles that are heavily influenced by more individually driven decision-making only reinforces this point. A funder may encounter an organization through a formal proposal, a donor recommendation, a community foundation advisor, a peer funder, a site visit, a coalition table, or a trusted intermediary. Getting curious, building relationship, and building credibility and visibility are all going to be increasingly important as this landscape continues to evolve.
For nonprofits, the practical implication is clear: grant strategy should not begin when an application opens. It should begin with relationship mapping, funder learning, warm introductions, thoughtful updates, and a clear point of view about the organization’s impact. In a competitive environment, the strongest proposal is one that comes after strong relationship building and conversation.
Corporate Giving Grew More Slowly
Corporate giving reached $43.67 billion in 2025, up 3.1% in current dollars but only 0.5% after inflation. As a part of the giving pie, it continues to trail far behind other sources.
That does not mean corporate giving is irrelevant. It does mean nonprofits should be realistic. For many nonprofits, corporate philanthropy is unlikely to be the primary funding source, and it is rarely just about a company “wanting to give back.” It is often tied to brand alignment, employee engagement, community visibility, business interests, and measurable impact.
Organizations pursuing corporate support should think beyond sponsorship menus. Stronger opportunities may come from partnerships that connect corporate priorities with authentic community benefit: volunteer engagement, workforce development, local visibility, employee giving, event sponsorship, and issue-based partnerships.
What Nonprofits Should Do Now
While this report provides interesting context, ultimately the most critical data for every nonprofit is their own. Every nonprofit should be asking itself: Are individual donors renewing? Are average gifts increasing? Are major donors upgrading? Are lapsed donors returning? Is foundation revenue growing because of stronger relationships or because of a few one-time grants? That is the best place to start - and where you'll find the most value over time.
If you follow one trend, it should be: If you can, build planned giving into regular donor communications. This can start simply: website language, newsletter reminders, board talking points, and basic follow-up systems.
Where to double down: Organizations should specialize and individualize as much as possible within areas where they already have strong track records, while testing out new funding areas conservatively with the goal of long-term diversification. The goal is not to chase every possible revenue stream. The goal is to understand which mix of individual giving, major gifts, grants, bequests, corporate support, and events fits the organization’s mission, capacity, and donor base.
Where to be cautious: Nonprofits, boards, and philanthropists should be careful with the “record giving” headline. Yes, giving is up. But costs are also up. Community needs are high. Public funding remains uncertain for many organizations. And philanthropic growth is increasingly concentrated in channels that require stronger strategy, better systems, and deeper donor relationships.
TL:DR
Giving USA’s latest data shows that charitable giving is growing, reaching $617.20 billion in 2025 and crossing $600 billion for the first time. But the growth is uneven. Bequests, foundations, major gifts, donor-advised funds, and other wealth-based giving vehicles are playing an increasingly important role, while individual giving grew more modestly (while still being the largest piece of the national philanthropic pie) after inflation and corporate giving remains a smaller piece of the overall picture.
For nonprofits, the headline is not simply “giving is up.” The real takeaway is that fundraising strategy needs to become more segmented, more relationship-driven, and more attentive to how donors give: through annual gifts, estate plans, family foundations, foundation relationship building, DAFs, and corporate partnerships.
The most important place to start is still your own data: donor retention, average gift size, lapsed donors, major donor upgrades, foundation revenue patterns, and planned giving opportunities. National trends provide context, but your organization’s fundraising health depends on understanding what is happening inside your own donor base.
Sources and Resources for Further Reading
Source | Covers: | Link |
Giving USA / Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, “Giving USA: U.S. charitable giving rose to $617.20 billion in 2025” | Core Giving USA 2026 data: total giving, source-category totals, growth rates, inflation-adjusted growth, individual giving, bequests, foundation giving, corporate giving, and recipient-sector trends | |
Associated Press, “Donors gave U.S. charities $617 billion in 2025, according to the new Giving USA report” | Giving USA summary, economic context, market influence, mega gifts, public funding uncertainty, and interpretation of 2025 giving trends | |
Chronicle of Philanthropy, “U.S. Giving Hits $617B. Has Great Wealth Transfer Begun?” | Bequests as a possible signal of the Great Wealth Transfer; concern about growing reliance on a smaller pool of wealthy donors | |
ABC News / Associated Press, “Donors gave U.S. charities $617 billion in 2025, according to Giving USA report” | Mega gifts: gifts of $600 million or more in 2025; $19.2 billion in mega gifts; mega gifts as roughly 4% of individual giving; MacKenzie Scott’s $6.65 billion in 2025 giving | |
DAF Research Collaborative, “Annual DAF Report 2025” | Definition of donor-advised funds, how DAFs work, sponsoring organizations, and broader DAF sector context | |
National Philanthropic Trust, “The DAF Report” | Background on DAF reporting and the transition of the annual DAF report to the DAF Research Collaborative | |
Candid, “5 takeaways from the 2026 DAF Fundraising Report” | Current DAF fundraising context and nonprofit-facing implications of DAF growth | |
Giving USA, “Giving USA — A public service initiative of the Giving Institute” | Context on Giving USA as the annual philanthropy research source and its special reports on topics such as donor-advised funds, legacy giving, and workplace giving | |
Giving USA, “Donor-Advised Funds” topic page | Additional Giving USA-related DAF commentary and nonprofit-facing context |
This article was developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed, edited, and approved by the author, Gillia Bakie. AI was used to support research synthesis, drafting, and refinement; all final analysis, interpretation, and publication decisions reflect the author’s professional judgment and oversight.
Comments