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U.S. charitable giving increased 3.3% to US$593 billion in 2024, lifted by the power of the economic system.
The annual report from the Giving USA Foundation, produced in partnership with the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, discovered that this was the second-highest degree on document after adjusting for inflation.
Giving grew on the quickest tempo since 2021, when the COVID-19 pandemic led many Americans to make larger-than-usual donations. It was additionally the primary time since then that development in giving outpaced inflation.
As two of the report’s lead researchers, we see many indicators of wholesome development in charitable giving in 2024. Our knowledge reveals that the strong economy, which grew 2.8% in 2024, bolstered particular person and company giving and allowed foundations to keep up the traditionally excessive degree of giving seen from them in recent times.
It additionally helped that stock markets performed well in 2024, consumer sentiment was generally positive, personal income rose and inflation continued to ease.
Donations to just about each charitable class we observe grew.
People and Companies Led Total Development
Particular person donors continued to supply the majority of the nation’s charitable items. The $392 billion they gave to charity accounted for two-thirds of the 12 months’s whole. Giving by people grew 5.1% from 2023 – a swifter tempo than for all donations.
Company giving rose even sooner. It was up 6% to a document $44 billion.
This development displays the high pretax profits earned by corporations in 2024 and the development towards firms donating the next share of pretax earnings in recent times.
For instance, firms typically donated lower than 1% of pretax earnings from 2004-2018. However our analysis group began to see company giving rise to 1% or extra within the 2019 knowledge. This was additionally the case in 2024, when company giving stood at 1.1% of pretax earnings.
Company philanthropy has grown by greater than 50% since 2019, a development that has coincided with rising in-kind donations of insulin products and different prescribed drugs. Drugmakers made an estimated $24 billion in these donations in 2024 – up 41% since 2019.
To make sure, firms’ donations amounted to only 7% of total giving in 2024.
In the meantime, grants made by foundations exceeded $100 billion for the third straight 12 months. Nearly $1 out of each $5 contributed to charity was from a basis in every of these years.
Giving by foundations within the 5 years ending in 2024 was greater than every other interval since Giving USA has tracked this knowledge. Basis giving, nonetheless, remained pretty flat from 2023 to 2024, at about $110 billion.
Round 8% of all items made in 2024 had been from bequests included in people’s wills, the identical as in 2023. Bequests totaled $44 billion, down 4.4% when adjusted for inflation. However the whole given by bequests varies fairly a bit from 12 months to 12 months.
Most Sorts of Donations Elevated
Donations to a lot of the 9 charitable classes Giving USA tracks elevated. The one exception: Presents to church buildings and different non secular establishments fell 1%. However non secular giving remained by far the highest class, adopted by human companies and schooling.
Non secular causes acquired 23% of all donations, a complete of $147 billion. Giving to human companies nonprofits, corresponding to meals banks and homeless shelters, elevated significantly in the course of the pandemic. It now accounts for about 14% of all donations. In 2024, these items totaled $91 billion.
Giving to schooling, which primarily consists of donations to colleges and universities has tended to develop extra slowly than total giving in recent times.
Giving for schooling rebounded to a document excessive in 2024, nonetheless, rising almost 10% from a 12 months earlier. And these items have grown at a fast tempo over the previous decade, growing by greater than 22% from 2015 to 2024. The $88 billion in items acquired for schooling in 2024 was the third-largest of the 9 classes we observe.
A number of different classes additionally reached all-time highs of giving in 2024: well being, at $61 billion; arts, tradition and humanities, at $25 billion; and setting and animals, at $22 billion.
The will increase in giving for many sorts of nonprofits, supported by robust development in giving by people and firms, point out that the charitable sector ended 2024 in a comparatively stable place.
