U.S. charitable giving tops $600 billion for the first time, as the stock market boosts bequest growth
According to the Giving USA report, U.S. charitable giving was estimated at $617.2 billion last year, up 5.7% from the previous year. Against the backdrop of a strong stock market rebound, the increase points to a shifting mix of funding sources for philanthropy.
This is the first time in the 60-year history of the annual giving report that total donations have topped $600 billion. After adjusting for inflation, giving rose 3% year over year.
But the stock market boom had a more pronounced effect on deep-pocketed donors. Individual giving still made up the largest share of contributions at $394.2 billion, but after inflation adjustment it rose only 1.4%. Charitable bequests, by contrast, surged 16.6% to an estimated $62.19 billion.
Bequest growth may reflect the latest sign of a massive intergenerational wealth transfer. Cerulli Associates estimates that more than $124 trillion in assets will change hands by 2048, with about $18 trillion going to charity.
Jon Bergdoll, the report's lead analyst, said it is still impossible to determine how much of the increase in bequests comes from this enormous transfer of wealth.
What is clearer is that wealthy Americans, who are most likely to leave large sums to charity, are also the biggest beneficiaries of the stock market rally. Bergdoll said bequests and overall net worth are usually closely linked, and net worth in turn is tied to market performance.
Meanwhile, broader measures of overall giving, including foundation and corporate donations, respond more slowly and are less volatile. Bergdoll expects charitable giving to show a more visible rise given the market momentum of recent years, but the actual increase still lags.
The report shows that from 2024 to 2025, the S&P 500 rose 13.4% after inflation adjustment, while total giving grew at about one-quarter of that pace.
Bergdoll partly attributed the gap to a mismatch between rising nominal wealth and economic fundamentals: GDP growth has been weak, and consumer confidence has been low. He noted that giving often comes from a sense of personal financial security, and that unease may have dampened growth on the individual-giving side.
He also stressed that it would not be ideal for nonprofit organizations if charitable giving moved too closely with the stock market. He said the relationship should not be one-to-one: even if the market rises 20%, giving does not necessarily need to rise by the same amount; likewise, when the market falls, giving should not be expected to drop sharply in proportion.
The report also noted that because tax incentives may be reduced after 2026, some high-income donors are expected to make part of their gifts early in 2025 to capture the tax benefit. Bergdoll said this added amount is meaningful within the overall total, but still relatively limited. The report estimated that donors contributed an extra $1.71 billion in 2025 to make full use of tax incentives set to expire.
Although U.S. charities are receiving more money, their reliance on ultra-high-net-worth donors is increasing: as financial pressure squeezes the giving capacity of the middle class, more funding is coming from the ultra-rich. The report estimated that just 9 donors accounted for $22.32 billion of total giving last year. One especially large gift came from philanthropist and Amazon co-founder Jeff Bezos's former wife, MacKenzie Scott, whose contribution was the largest at $6.65 billion.
These mega-gifts, which account for at least 0.1% of total giving, can reshape the philanthropic landscape from year to year. Nearly one-third of the increase in bequests came from the estate of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, whose $3.1 billion fund supports science and technology research.
Gabe Cooper, vice chair of the Giving USA Foundation, expressed mixed feelings about mega-gifts in an interview. He said he welcomes people like Paul Allen and MacKenzie Scott putting large sums into charity and hopes more billionaires will do the same. But on the other hand, he does not want those numbers to keep growing without limit, because philanthropy's dependence on the ultra-wealthy could make giving patterns more unstable from year to year.
Cooper also focused on heirs. He said that if a billionaire leaves $200 million to charity after death, the remaining $80 million will likely go to their children, so what matters even more is whether heirs can make good choices in charitable decisions.
