U.S. charitable giving tops $600 billion: driven by the ultra-wealthy and bequests

Donors gave an estimated $617.2 billion to U.S. charities last year, up 5.7% from the year before. According to the Giving USA report released this week, the increase came amid a surging stock market.

It also marks the first time in the 60-year history of the annual philanthropy report that yearly giving has exceeded $600 billion. Adjusted for inflation, giving rose 3% year over year.

Still, the stock market boom had a more pronounced effect on donors with deep pockets. Individual donors remained the largest share of giving, at $394.2 billion, but their inflation-adjusted increase was only 1.4%. By contrast, charitable bequests—gifts made after a donor's death—were estimated at $62.19 billion, up 16.6% year over year.

The rise in bequests may also be the latest sign of the "Great 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 tell how much of the increase in bequest giving comes from this massive transfer of wealth.

What is clear is this: among wealthy Americans most likely to leave large sums to charity, the stock market's winners are more likely to be those whose own net worth has risen.

"There is always a fairly close link between bequests and overall net worth, and net worth is closely tied to market performance," Bergdoll said. He is the interim director of the data and research partnership program at Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, which studies and writes the report.

In addition, the other components included in total giving—such as foundation and corporate giving—tend to react more slowly to the stock market and less strongly. Bergdoll expects giving growth to be more pronounced, given the strong market gains of recent years. According to the report, the S&P 500 rose 13.4% from 2024 to 2025 after inflation adjustment, while total giving grew at about one-quarter of that pace.

He believes the gap between paper wealth and actual giving may partly reflect weak gross domestic product (GDP) growth and consumer confidence at historic lows.

"It's a somewhat unusual economic environment: the stock market is doing well, and GDP is okay, but you can feel a real sense of unease," Bergdoll said. He added that giving usually comes from a person's sense of financial security, so that unease may be weighing on donations at the individual level.

Bergdoll also noted that if charitable giving moves too tightly with the stock market, the nonprofit sector would be harmed.

"We don't want a one-to-one relationship. Of course we want giving to rise 20% when the stock market rises 20%, but we also don't want giving to fall 20% when the stock market falls 20%."

Bequests and the wealth-transfer trend: the ultra-wealthy benefit more visibly

Several high-income individuals are expected to accelerate some giving in 2025 to take advantage of tax breaks, but those incentives will later decline under arrangements tied to the One Big Beautiful Bill. Bergdoll said the impact of giving ahead of schedule is "significant," but still modest relative to total giving. The report estimates that donors gave an extra $1.71 billion in 2025 to make fuller use of expiring tax incentives.

Although funding for U.S. charities is increasing, their sources are also becoming more dependent on the ultra-wealthy. The report estimates that, under economic pressure, giving from middle-class donors is being squeezed. It estimates that nine donors accounted for $22.32 billion of total charitable giving last year, with MacKenzie Scott, the philanthropist and ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, leading the largest single gift share at $6.65 billion.

These "megagifts"—defined as at least 0.1% of total giving—can significantly shape the philanthropic landscape from year to year. Nearly one-third of the growth in bequests came from the estate of the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, who created a $3.1 billion fund for science and technology research.

The benefits and risks of megagifts: higher expectations for heirs

Gabe Cooper, vice chair of the Giving USA Foundation, has mixed feelings about megagifts.

"I certainly want to see people like Paul Allen and MacKenzie Scott pledge large amounts of wealth to charity, and I want to see more billionaires do that," Cooper said. But at the same time, he does not want those numbers to grow too quickly, and he does not want charitable giving to become ever more dependent on ultra-high-wealth individuals, whose giving patterns may be more volatile from year to year.

Cooper also has his eye on a bigger issue: heirs.

"If a billionaire dies and gives $200 million to charity, then the remaining $800 million will most likely go to their children. So I hope the children make better decisions about philanthropy."