THE STATE OF GENEROSITY IN 2025
Generosity as Resilience
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GivingTuesday has always celebrated individual giving’s role in meeting community needs. That may seem obvious, yet. But at a time when institutional support is becoming less predictable and increasingly displaced, it’s become more important than ever to understand how people and communities care for one another.
For years, our understanding of generosity was shaped by what was easiest to measure: charitable donations, institutional philanthropy, and formal aid. Those systems matter enormously, even if. But they have never captured the full picture of how people support one another.
A defining story of 2025 in the philanthropy and aid world was the dismantling of USAID, and the ripple effects that followed throughout the global giving ecosystem. There is no question that these changes caused long-term harm to hundreds of worthwhile efforts around the world. But it has also highlighted something that was always true: Formal institutions are only one part of civil society. Beneath them exists a far broader ecosystem of community care that has always sustained people, even when it has remained largely invisible.
Here we see that as governments recede from playing a central role, an intersection of societal generosity and activism are stepping up. Other forms of capital, particularly from individuals, account for a huge portion of what supports aid around the world.
The global political climate often appears to reward myopia and self-interest, but that’s not what we see in the data. People don’t only give when it’s easy or optimistic to do so: They continue to show up for one another, even — or especially — amid uncertainty. The foundation of generosity is proving remarkably resilient.
This echoes a theme we have been exploring for several years: In 2022, “Rethinking Resilience” argued that generosity is not just a response to crisis, it is key to community resilience. In 2024’s “Generosity as Resilience,” we explored how generous action strengthens social cohesion in fractured times. And in countries where there has been political upheaval, like in Britain and the US, community ties have actually strengthened.
This does not mean we can be complacent. We cannot simply assume that individual resilience will compensate for institutional decline. If we do, we'll miss the opportunity to ask whether people have the conditions they need to support one another in the ways they want to.
As the State of Generosity report has evolved, so too has our understanding of generosity. New datasets tell us how people around the world give in multiple ways. We find near-universal multi-modal generosity: Most people give in some form, often in many ways, including volunteering, direct aid, advocacy, and donation. And when people give, they do so across borders, and across differences in politics, identity, and worldview.
It’s often noted that the US population donates more in monetary terms than anywhere else in the world. But when we account for factors like household income, some countries — like Kenya — appear among the most generous around the world. A narrow focus on monetary sums most definitely does not tell the entire story.
I hesitate to describe this as “a post-aid world,” because I would hope that we eventually return to a political environment that once again embraces international cooperation. But beyond the context in which we’re now living, more global data — like that found in this report — can illustrate how people are creating other systems, and how they’re feeling about community care. A better understanding of these support systems can inform new and vital ecosystems, rather than a return to the kind of narrow definitions of resource deployment that characterized legacy philanthropy and aid in the past.
We now see where the new civic infrastructure is going to be. Now it’s imperative that we understand it better and that we find more ways to support it.
Woodrow Rosenbaum
Chief Data Officer
GivingTuesday
HOW INDIVIDUALS DRIVE GIVING AROUND THE WORLD
Global aid flows
Key Takeaways:
While official development aid, like USAID and comparable aid from that of other countries, has decreased, every other form of giving has increased.
As we have tracked in previous years, giving from individuals dwarfs the amounts allocated by government aid, institutional philanthropy, and corporate philanthropy.
Using new methodology based on household income rather than overall monetary value, we determined the top five most generous countries are Indonesia, Nigeria, Ghana, Kuwait, and Zambia — all located in regions whose generosity is likely undercounted by methods built around Western giving norms.
Higher giving rates tend to show up in countries with stronger civic enabling environments, where organizations can operate freely and philanthropy is legally supported. Where giving rates are lower, this likely reflects the lasting effects of government policies that historically restricted independent civil society, making it difficult for people to donate, organize, or give through formal channelsformally.
The single largest source of global aid is remittances, totaling $690B to low- and middle-income countries and directly involving about one in nine people worldwide.
HOW INDIVIDUALS DRIVE GIVING AROUND THE WORLD
i. Global Aid Flows
For the past two years, we have produced estimates of global monetary flows in giving, using available macro-economic indices.
Using the most recent figures available at the time of publishing, we estimate that two trillion dollars (USD $2.119 trillion) flows worldwide annually to improve people’s lives. We see indications that this number represents some real growth from when we first began compiling this estimate in 2023.
A detailed account of how each component changed is in our technical appendix.
Every form of aid increased in 2025, except for official development assistance (ODA).
Various types of giving driven by individuals and communities rose in 2025. Donations from individuals in the US increased (GivingUSA), as did grants from individuals through donor-advised funds. Giving mediated by US religious congregations increased, as did bequests (donations made through a will). (GivingUSA). Individual giving across all its forms (remittances, donations to nonprofits, bequests, to/through congregations, and using donor advised funds) totalled $1,615 billion in 2025.
Donations from individuals around the world increased, typically to organizations in the same country, as did remittances, according to the US Federal Reserve.
While US foundation grantmaking grew modestly, corporate philanthropy saw a notably stronger increase.
As noted earlier, Overseas Development Assistance shrank significantly, primarily as a result of the shuttering of USAID as well as cuts to aid from countries in the European Union and beyond.
We encourage interested observers to read our technical documentation of our estimate in the Appendix and tell us what we are missing.
ii. World Map of Individual Giving
In this year’s report, we wanted to understand where generosity culture is strongest relative to what people have. The world map reflects our best, current understanding of how generosity around the world manifests across a varied landscape of different socioeconomic norms.
We combined CAF's World Giving Index (CAF WGI) with other adjustments from the literature and GDP per capita to estimate individual domestic giving as a percent of total annual household income. This is an expanded look at the $252 billion in our global aid flows chart. This perspective controls for differences in wealth and highlights the effect of cultural norms on generosity. We can see that generosity culture varies in ways not explained by geography. The 2024 CAF WGI global survey data covers 142 countries and reports the percent in each country that gave money, volunteered, or helped a stranger in the past year. Giving rates tend to be similar for each country from one year to the next, making it a stable benchmark for level of engagement by country.
Viewed this way, the top five most generous countries are Indonesia (1.23% of household income), Nigeria (1.16%), Ghana (1.10%), Kuwait (1.01%), and Zambia (1.00%). The United States falls in the upper middle tier at 0.82% of household income. The Philanthropy Roundtable estimates that total charitable contributions from all domestic sources has hovered around 2% for past decades, and that total within-country giving from individuals in the US would fall around 1.2% of GDP.
What global trends emerge from the world map? To explore this question, we benchmarked our estimates against the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy's Global Philanthropy Environment Index, which measures how freely organizations can operate in each country. Higher giving rates tend to show up in countries with stronger civic enabling environments, where organizations can operate freely and philanthropy is legally supported.
Where giving rates are lower, this could reflect a variety of influences, such as lasting effects of government policies that historically restricted independent civil society, or other factors that make it difficult for people to donate, organize, or give formally. Research shows these structural constraints can persist for decades after the policies themselves have changed, shaping not just how much people give but how giving gets measured and recorded.
Notably, all five of the most generous countries by our estimate of within-country generosity are in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, regions whose generosity is likely undercounted by methods built around Western giving norms. As we refine our estimates each year, we hope to better account thefor the undercounting of generosity from populations living in places where data is scarce.
iii. Remittance inflows: Top 5 countries
Remittances are tThe single largest source of global aid is remittances, totaling $690B to low- and middle-income countries, and directly involving about one in nine people worldwide. The remittance economy affects more people than the populations of the US and EU combined, and each family receiving money from abroad likely affects many others in itstheir community who arenot officially counted. The UN estimates that this direct aid addresses at least seven of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, and totals more than $100 billion annually in direct, long-term community investment that reduces poverty. About 75% of remittances remain with recipient families, paying for immediate needs like food, medicine, school, and utilities. About 50% of global remittances flow to rural areas. In more than 60 countries, remittances account for 3% or more of the gross domestic product, according to the World Bank — much more influential than official development assistance.
Compared against what we observed last year, the same five countries lead the world in remittance inflows. Pakistan led in growth among these, growing 22% in 2024 and 27% in 2025. Saudi Arabia, UAE, Great Britain, and the US are the top countries sending money to Pakistan.
This year's findings are less a story of unexpected resilience than of previously under-measured resilience. As geopolitical contexts shift the ways communities organize, support one another, and mobilize resources become increasingly central to the future of civil society. The question is no longer simply how we sustain communities and people. It is how we understand, strengthen, and invest in the generosity that has always existed alongside them.
— Asha Curran, CEO GivingTuesday
— Asha Curran, CEO, GivingTuesday
Brazil, Mexico, US, Canada, Great Britain, Kenya, India
Giving and Civic Intent Trends in 2025
Key Takeaways
Giving in any form rose year over year across the seven surveyed countries. The US and Mexico recorded the largest increases in overall participation, while Kenya, India, and Brazil each saw slight declines. Kenya and India remain the two highest-participation countries in the sample, with near universal participation.
Growth was uneven across giving types, with volunteering and advocacy increasing more than monetary and item-based giving. Volunteering and advocacy grew slightly faster than the overall participation rate.
Civic Intent scores and giving participation show a consistent relationship across countries. Kenya and India, the two highest-participation countries for giving, also have the largest shares of respondents scoring in the top tiers of Civic Intent. The remaining five countries show a comparatively flatter distribution on both measures.
Willingness to give across ideological lines is high in every country surveyed, with Great Britain consistently the lowest. In all seven countries, a majority of respondents fall into the less polarized segment of the scale. Kenya and India report the highest shares in this segment.
Stability in social fabric indicators masks divergent country-level trends. At the country level, the United States recorded gains across all five Civic Intent indicators, and Mexico showed similar positive movement. Great Britain declined on community belonging and depolarizing attitudes, and Brazil recorded declines across generosity, trust, and belonging measures.
In our seven-country Global Omnibus Survey, we continue to ask questions about the extent to which people’s underlying participation in (and motivations about) generosity are holding.
Compared with what we saw in 2024, we continue to see that, regardless of economic pressure, political climate, or cultural context, the overwhelming majority of people find some way to give.
In this section, we look at a few key angles of this question:
If generosity is changing: Overall participation is up, but the more interesting story is underneath the topline number. Individual modes of giving (money, items, time, advocacy) are each growing faster than the aggregate, suggesting that people who already give are finding more ways to do it.
How generosity relates to civic belief: Using our Civic Intent framework, we examine how people's sense of obligation to the common good relates to their willingness to help others they disagree with. We find that the countries with the strongest civic commitment are also the most willing to give across ideological lines.
Whether the social fabric is fraying: By tracking five indicators (community belonging, generosity, trust in people, trust in nonprofits, and depolarizing attitudes), we get a more nuanced understanding of civic health in the countries we’ve surveyed.
HOW GENEROSITY CONNECTS US TO COMMUNITY
i. Giving rates increased slightly, YOY
Across the seven countries we regularly survey (US, Great Britain, India, Kenya, Brazil, Mexico, and Canada), overall giving rates were up slightly in 2025. The overall figure modestly understates the fact that each specific form of giving grew a little more than the total, which indicates that people already participating may be participating in more ways than before.
Country-level trends varied considerably and are examined in detail in the country profiles in Part 3. The tables above provide the reference data and subsequent profiles interpret what those shifts mean in context.
Giving is near universal: at least four out of five people gave in some form last year, from a low of 80% in Brazil to 99% in Kenya, nearly everybody helps. Between two-thirds and 98% of people gave in two or more forms last year (any combination of money, items, volunteering, or advocacy). People were more likely to have given in all four modes everywhere that we surveyed, than in only one.any one mode.
The US and Mexico saw the largest increases in participation, while Brazil, India, and Kenya saw slight decreases in overall generosity, measured as a percent of the population engaged. These shifts are best understood in context, as participation in giving is near universal in Kenya and remains exceptionally high in India and Mexico.
Table
ii. Civic Intent and willingness to give across ideological boundaries
Originally developed in 2024, Civic Intent is a composite metric that captures how individuals express their commitment to the common good through recent acts of generosity, community-mindedness, and willingness to help others that they may disagree with. To examine civic trends within each country, we divided people into segments based on where they fell on a 100-point scale, with 80–100 being those who held the most prosocial attitudes and participated in the greatest variety of ways. Kenya and India stand out sharply: the vast majority of respondents in both countries score in the top two tiers (60–100), with very few falling below 40. The other five countries present a flatter picture, with larger shares of their populations in the middle ranges (20–80).
This pattern is consistent with what we see in generosity behavior more broadly: the countries where nearly everyone gives are also the countries where a strong sense of obligation to the common good is most widely held.
We continue to ask a variety of questions about people’s willingness to act generously for the benefit of people with different ideologies or lifestyles. When framed in the context of generous action, we see evidence that most people have an inclusive mindset in who they are willing to help. In every country we survey, the majority of people fallfind themselves in the less polarized portion of the scale, with Kenya and India having the largest shares of people willing to help across various boundaries. On this aspect of prosociality, Great Britain lags behind other countries.
iii. Understanding the social fabric
In addition to tracking Civic Intent, we also track Civic Intent tells us about how participation obligation to others. To understand whether that sense of obligation is strengthening or eroding, we track five underlying indicators of social fabric: community belonging, generosity in any form, trust in people, trust in nonprofits, and depolarizing attitudes.
Viewed in aggregate, 2025 looks a lot like 2024. But that headline number hides real movement underneath. The United States posted gains across all five indicators, the most consistent positive shift of any country in the study. Mexico moved in a similarly positive direction. Great Britain moved the other way, with falling community belonging and depolarizing attitudes suggesting rising social strain. Brazil continued a multi-year softening across generosity, trust, and belonging. The lesson: a flat global average can conceal meaningfully different stories happening inside individual countries.
In 2025, these measures were largely consistent with what we saw in 2024. Stability in the aggregate masks some notable changes at the country level. The United States showed the most consistent positive shift of any country in the study, with gains across all five indicators. Mexico also moved in a broadly positive direction, with the largest gain in depolarizing attitudes and meaningful increases in trust in nonprofits and trust in people. The United Kingdom moved in the opposite direction. Depolarizing attitudes fell, as did community belonging dropped suggesting growing social strain. Canada is the only country where trust in nonprofits declined.
Brazil showed broad softening across generosity participation, trust in people, and community belonging, continuing a multi-year pattern. India and Kenya were largely stable, with only small shifts in either direction across the five indicators.
Country-specific trends will be examined in depth in a forthcoming series of country reports to be released over the next month.
Key Takeaways
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Our findings continue to affirm the notion that generosity is rooted in connection, not just contribution. People give not only because they’re asked, but because they feel part of something larger—whether it’s a community, a cause, or a shared set of values. This underscores the importance of cultivating long-term engagement strategies that go beyond dollars raised. Fundraising efforts should nurture relationships, build trust, and create opportunities for meaningful participation.
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Giving behaviours are deeply interconnected. A one-time donation can lead to sustained volunteering. Advocacy on behalf of a cause can spark financial support. Even small acts of kindness or attention can set the stage for deeper civic involvement. Organizations that recognize and honor the full spectrum of giving—not just financial contributions—are better positioned to build durable support across their communities.
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Our core message in recent years—that nonprofits should diversify their solicitation strategies and more intentionally engage grassroots supporters through volunteering, advocacy, and peer influence—continues to grow in urgency. In a shifting global landscape where traditional fundraising pipelines face new constraints, tapping into the full range of generosity remains both a strategic and ethical imperative.
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As we continue to explore the links between generosity, civic participation, and social cohesion, the Civic Intent framework provides a sound foundation for new inquiry. It helps illuminate how and why people contribute to the common good—and how those contributions can strengthen belonging, bridge divides, and support civic well-being. Investing in deeper, comparative research using this framework could help unlock new strategies for nonprofits, funders, and civic leaders alike.
LOOKING AHEAD
GivingTuesday’s Data and Research Initiatives Around the World
GivingTuesday’s global network continues to expand how we understand and strengthen generosity at the community level.
From India to Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe, our Hubs are leading innovative, contextually grounded research and data efforts to better capture, amplify, and activate generosity as a civic force.
Here’s a snapshot of key work happening across our global data ecosystem:
India: Everyday Giving as a Pathway to Civil Society Resilience
India’s social sector continues to face a substantial funding gap—one that Everyday Giving (EG) is uniquely positioned to help address. Through UDARTA:EG, a flagship initiative of GivingTuesday in India, we are spotlighting the power of individual giving to diversify nonprofit funding streams and mobilize more sustainable, grassroots support.
This study, grounded in a collaborative research model, has garnered significant participation from the Indian social sector with more than 300 organisations having taken the survey. The report will explore how nonprofits encourage givers in the Indian context, and what strategies and practices help nonprofits effectively engage that generosity.
With a full launch planned for the fall of 2025, the initiative will not only generate new insights but also offer tangible tools for nonprofits to strengthen their GivingTuesday campaigns—through data walks, field guides, peer exchanges, and evidence-informed campaign planning resources.
Latin America and the Caribbean: Tracking Digital Giving Trends
In Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC), GivingTuesday’s data work has centered on mapping the dynamics of online generosity. The Online Giving Radar, a recurring initiative led by the LAC Hub, captures emerging trends in digital giving across the region and highlights shifts in donor behavior and organizational strategy.
Building on the 2023 LAC Generosity Report’s valuable insights into the region’s culture of giving, the 2024 Online Giving Radar Report (expected fall 2025) will extend this learning further, offering nonprofits actionable knowledge on digital engagement patterns across LAC. As with the previous version, it will be published in English, Spanish, and Portuguese.
Europe: Generosity as a Force for Civic Participation
Since its launch in June 2024, the GivingTuesday Europe Hub has been engaging civic actors, nonprofits, and funders to better understand generosity’s role in strengthening civic life. Across diverse European contexts, generosity has shown its ability to catalyze social cohesion, participation, and civic renewal—but this potential remains under-recognized and unevenly supported.
To address this gap, the Hub is developing the Generosity in Europe Report—a comprehensive exploration of how generosity intersects with active citizenship across the continent. The report will also examine the evolving data ecosystem surrounding generosity: who holds the data, how it’s used, and how it might better support civic infrastructure moving forward.
Africa: Tradition, Storytelling, and the Evolution of African Generosity
In Africa, GivingTuesday’s data and storytelling efforts have centered on elevating traditional and emerging expressions of generosity. Through its Traditions of Generosity initiative, the Africa Hub has deepened its work via community storytelling, youth engagement, and academic partnerships that offer richer, contextualized understandings of African philanthropic practices.
A major highlight of 2024 has been the #YouthGiveAfrica contest, which spanned 32 countries and surfaced over 500 stories of generosity, many of which reflect long-standing traditions of mutual aid, reciprocity, and collective care. This campaign builds on earlier work and reflects the organic evolution of the Traditions of Generosity initiative.
Additionally, the Hub is exploring new research collaborations, including an upcoming partnership with the Centre on African Philanthropy and Social Investment (CAPSI), which will further deepen the study of African giving traditions and their relationship to global generosity movements. These efforts are supported by storytelling tools—such as the GivingTuesday Africa podcast—that amplify lived experiences and offer new interpretations of generosity from African scholars and practitioners.
CONCLUSION
Building a Global Learning Agenda for Generosity
As GivingTuesday’s grows its data work around the world, we continue to explore generosity in context-specific and community-rooted ways, a clearer picture is emerging: generosity is not only universal—it is adaptive, powerful, and deeply civic.
From India’s efforts to mobilize everyday giving as a response to funding gaps, to Africa’s storytelling traditions and youth-driven generosity, to Europe’s focus on civic participation and Latin America and the Caribbean’s digital giving trends, these initiatives reflect the richness and diversity of global giving cultures.
Looking ahead, our data and research efforts are not just about measuring generosity—they are about amplifying its impact, expanding its possibilities, and embedding it more deeply in civic life. As we refine tools, build partnerships, and share insights across regions, GivingTuesday is laying the groundwork for a shared global learning agenda—one that positions generosity as a cornerstone of more resilient, connected, and equitable societies.
