US Charitable Giving Hit a Record $617 Billion in 2025 on Surging Bequests

Giving USA released its annual report on June 23, 2026, finding that Americans gave a record $617.2 billion to charity in 2025, the first year total giving has crossed $600 billion. Overall giving rose 5.7% in current dollars, or 3.0% after inflation, from 2024. The standout was bequests: charitable gifts made through wills and estates rose 19.7% in current dollars, or 16.6% after inflation, the fastest growth of any of the four sources Giving USA tracks.

What changed

Giving USA, published by the Giving Institute in partnership with the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, breaks total giving into four sources. All four grew in current dollars in 2025:

Individuals remain the largest source of giving, at roughly 64% of the total, but their growth was the slowest of the four categories once inflation is stripped out. Bequests, by contrast, posted what the report calls the largest increase of any of the four sources of giving in 2025, according to Foundation Source's summary of the findings.

Who is affected

Bequest totals reflect estate planning decisions made years, sometimes decades, before a gift is realized, so the 2025 jump is less about a single year's tax law than about a wave of estates settling in a strong market. Strong equity and real estate values in 2025 likely lifted the size of estates that included charitable bequests, and industry commentary cited by Stelter's review of the report pointed to this being the third time in four years that bequest giving has posted a double-digit increase, consistent with the early stages of a large generational transfer of wealth. Families with charitable language already built into a will, trust or beneficiary designation are the ones showing up in this data, not households making one-time lifetime gifts.

The after-tax math

The 2025 totals were also the last full year of giving before new federal limits on the itemized charitable deduction took effect for lifetime gifts. Starting in 2026, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act adds a 0.5%-of-AGI floor on itemized charitable deductions and effectively caps the value of the deduction near 35 cents per dollar for taxpayers in the top, 37% bracket, according to Fredrikson & Byron's analysis of the law.

Example, with round numbers: a couple with $600,000 of AGI gives $20,000 to public charities in a year they itemize. In 2025, the full $20,000 was deductible. From 2026, the first $3,000 (0.5% of $600,000) is not deductible, leaving $17,000 deductible, and if the couple is in the 37% bracket the benefit on that deductible amount is limited to about 35%, or roughly $5,950, versus about $7,400 under the old rules. The math applies to lifetime, itemized gifts; charitable bequests made through an estate are governed by separate estate-tax rules and are not run through this same floor and cap.

Moves to discuss with your advisor

• Whether accelerating planned 2026 or 2027 lifetime gifts into a single tax year, often through a donor-advised fund, makes sense given the new floor and cap.
• Whether existing bequest language in a will, trust or retirement account beneficiary designation still reflects current giving intentions, since those gifts are unaffected by the new income-tax limits.
• How the permanent 60%-of-AGI limit on cash gifts to public charities and the new $1,000 (or $2,000 for joint filers) deduction for non-itemizers fit into an overall giving plan.

What to watch

Giving USA's full 2026 report, expected in the following weeks, is likely to add more detail on giving by cause and by donor income level. Advisors will also be watching whether 2026 individual giving slows further now that the floor and cap are in effect, or whether donors simply shift more of their giving into donor-advised funds and other vehicles that can smooth the new limits over several years.

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