U.S. giving topped $600 billion for the first time last year. Megadonors and bequests are to thank
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- U.S. charitable giving reached an estimated $617.2 billion in 2025, up 5.7% year-over-year — the first time annual donations topped $600 billion in the 60-year history of the Giving USA report, with inflation-adjusted giving up 3%.
- Individual donors contributed $394.2 billion, the largest share, but that figure grew just 1.4% in inflation-adjusted dollars, while charitable bequests surged 16.6% to $62.19 billion.
- Nine megadonors accounted for $22.32 billion of 2025's total philanthropy, with MacKenzie Scott contributing the largest single share at $6.65 billion; nearly a third of the bequest increase came from Paul Allen's estate, which established a $3.1 billion science and technology research fund.
- The S&P 500 jumped 13.4% in inflation-adjusted dollars between 2024 and 2025 — roughly four times the growth rate of total giving — a gap lead analyst Jon Bergdoll attributed to tepid GDP growth and record-low consumer sentiment.
- Donors gave an estimated extra $1.71 billion in 2025 to lock in tax benefits set to decline under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a pull-forward Bergdoll called "significant but small relative to overall contributions."
- Cerulli Associates estimates more than $124 trillion in assets will pass down by 2048, with roughly $18 trillion allocated to charity, raising stakes for how heirs deploy inherited wealth — the real prize, according to Giving USA Foundation vice chair Gabe Cooper.
Why it matters: With middle-class donations growing just 1.4% in real terms while nine people gave $22.32 billion, the nonprofit sector's funding base is becoming dangerously concentrated — and when that $124 trillion wealth transfer lands, nonprofits will live or die by whether heirs choose to give like the ultra-wealthy donors who preceded them.
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