A new study shows that charitable giving in the U.S. saw its second highest year ever in 2024. About $593 billion was donated.
The Giving USA Foundation partnered with Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy to produce the report. Researchers looked at who the money came from and who it was donated to. In 2024, charitable giving grew 3.3 percent when adjusted for inflation, coming out above the 40-year average of 2.7 percent.
Jon Bergdoll, managing director of Giving USA and one of the lead researchers, said the pandemic disturbed the economy, when inflation skyrocketed, making people more hesitant to donate money. But a strong economy last year resulted in a growth in charitable giving: inflation decreased to 2.9 percent compared to 2023, when it was 3.4 percent. The unemployment rate and food prices remained stable, also contributing to a healthier economy.
“When people feel that sort of security, they feel a lot more willingness to give,” he said. “They feel like they can afford to a little bit, that it’s not as much of a risk.”
Results showed that religious institutions received the highest percentage of last year’s donations, coming out at 23 percent, or about $147 billion. Human services, which consist of food banks and shelters, received the second most amount of money, around $91 billion. About $88 billion in donations went to education. Bergdoll said most donations came from wealthier individuals and foundations. Over the last 15 years, he said, he has seen fewer individuals donating higher amounts of money.
“The term donors down, dollars up, this idea that most organizations are seeing this trend where, if they look back over their last several years, they're getting money from fewer individuals, but that money continues to increase,” he said.
He said since the economy faced few disruptions the last few years, he will be able to use the results as a potential standard year of giving.
“We don't know yet what 2025 is going to hold,” he said. “I'm not going to make predictions on that but having something to provide a baseline for where things stood coming into things so that we can more accurately sort of gage where things go from here is really critical.”
