Planned giving dramatically ups its game for American charities.
The most important number in American philanthropy last year was not the historic $617 billion total—it was the $62.19 billion that came from bequests.
As detailed in the newly released Giving USA 2026 report, giving through estates surged 19.7 percent in 2025, marking the third time in four years that bequest giving has grown by 20 percent or more in current dollars. Even when adjusting for the post-COVID era’s compounding inflation, bequests posted a staggering 16.6 percent growth rate in constant dollars—a clear signal of a massive, real-world migration of capital.
This single category accounted for nearly one-third of the nation’s $33.3 billion year-over-year increase in charitable giving, an extraordinary concentration of growth in what has historically been the sector’s most volatile source.
Only after that surge does the broader milestone come into view. According to Giving USA 2026, total charitable giving reached $617.2 billion, a 5.7 percent increase in current dollars and a 3.0 percent gain after adjusting for inflation. In a period marked by low consumer sentiment and political volatility, the topline number tells a reassuring story: the culture of giving remains intact.
But the real story—the one nonprofit leaders cannot afford to miss—is how that growth is being driven.
Taken in isolation, a single-year spike in bequests might be easy to dismiss. Historically, estate giving has fluctuated widely, often rising or falling based on timing, tax conditions, or the distribution of large individual estates. But the recent pattern suggests something more durable may be underway.
“We pretty rarely highlight single-year spikes or drops in bequests because of that volatility,” said Jon Bergdoll of the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. “But given the strong recent year growth—and when we look over the last 10 years, where we’ve seen bequests outpace overall giving pretty strongly—it does seem to be more than just a single-year spike.”
What remains less certain is the cause. Strong financial markets have undoubtedly played a role, inflating asset values and, in turn, estate sizes. But Bergdoll notes that the current trend also aligns with what analysts would expect to see in the early stages of the long-anticipated “Great Wealth Transfer,” as trillions of dollars begin moving from older generations to heirs and charitable institutions.
“We don’t quite have enough data to confidently say that,” he cautions. “But this sort of growth is what we’d expect to see if it were.”
Regardless of the ultimate driver, the operational implications for nonprofits are immediate.
The Reallocation of Philanthropic Intent
Faced with federal grant contractions, a shifting donor landscape, and persistent economic anxiety that has slowed the growth of individual annual donations, nonprofit leaders must treat this report as an urgent case for structural diversification. Even as total giving reached a record high, the composition of that giving continues to evolve: individual annual giving—the traditional bedrock of charitable support—grew more slowly and declined as a total share of American philanthropy.
Rather than a decline in core generosity, this divergence signals a unique reallocation of philanthropic intent from immediate, liquid contributions to deferred, legacy commitments. Donors are not necessarily giving less; they are giving differently.
For organizations navigating diminished state subventions, capturing this migration toward the bequest vehicle is no longer a long-term luxury—it is a near-term operational necessity. Likewise, organizations that rely exclusively on annual campaigns risk missing where the real momentum is building.
Retiming to Maximize Tax Advantages
Of note is a unique behavioral factor embedded in the 2025 data: timing.
Ahead of anticipated tax changes tied to the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” an estimated $1.71 billion in individual giving was accelerated into late 2025 to maximize tax advantages. An additional $310 million in corporate giving followed a similar pattern, bringing the total amount of “retimed” charitable capital to just over $2 billion. When measured against the roughly $17 billion increase in combined individual and corporate giving, this frontloaded capital represents approximately 12 percent of the growth in those pipelines.
However, not all of that money flowed directly into nonprofit operating budgets. According to Bergdoll, much of this accelerated giving likely moved into intermediary vehicles such as donor-advised funds (DAFs) and private foundations.
For nonprofit operators, this was less an economic illusion and more of a tactical opportunity. While headline figures suggest broad-based growth, a meaningful portion of 2025’s increase is committed, but not yet deployed to active charitable work.
The lesson for fundraisers is not to watch for a baseline drop, but to actively engage their core supporters. Because mature organizations likely coordinated with major donors during this year-end tax acceleration, the immediate step is straightforward: initiate a conversation with those DAF holders about scheduling a disbursement to fund active projects.
Decoupling from the State: The New Architecture of Giving
These underlying shifts unfolded against a backdrop of sweeping policy transitions, initiated when the now-retired Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) moved rapidly to freeze and restructure federal grant pipelines. While those historic budget contractions triggered short-term friction across heavily subsidized lines, they simultaneously catalyzed a real-time stress test for the independent sector. The organizations best positioned to navigate that transition period were those that had already done the hard work of building diversified, private-donor pipelines.
Gabe Cooper, CEO of Virtuous and incoming chair of the Giving USA Foundation, views this environment as a compelling case for a long-term strategic pivot. There is enormous philanthropic capacity sitting inside existing donor files, but capturing it requires smaller charities to consciously break away from near-term operational anxieties.
“Planned giving can no longer be treated as a boutique strategy reserved for large institutions,” Cooper states. “The smaller nonprofits who come out ahead in planned giving will be the ones with the courage and time to adopt a long-term mindset.”
Crucially, Cooper points out that modern fundraising tools are dismantling the traditional barriers to entry.
“Historically, planned giving felt intimidating, technical, and reserved for wealthy donors with attorneys and complex estates. That is changing,” Cooper explains. “Online estate planning tools can reduce friction by helping educate donors, create wills, and accelerate conversations with attorneys.”
By lowering these technical barriers, emerging infrastructure allows local charities to identify high-potential legacy prospects based on authentic alignment rather than raw net worth.
“Modern fundraising tools, particularly AI, are making legacy giving much more accessible, especially for mid-level donors,” says Cooper. “In addition, machine learning combined with wealth data can quickly identify donors who may have high planned giving potential based on loyalty, tenure, engagement, giving consistency, and affinity—not just current gift size. That is important because many of the best planned giving prospects are not the biggest annual donors. They are the most committed donors.”
Ultimately, this transition reinforces a classic tenet of American localism: a robust, independent civil society is sustained by genuine relationships, not federal subventions. The role of technology is to scale those relationships, not dehumanize them.
“The key is leveraging these new tools without breaking trust or watering down the relationship,” Cooper emphasizes. “Planning your philanthropic legacy can be an incredibly emotional and personal moment. The most successful nonprofits will be the ones who leverage AI to amplify trust and relationship—not replace it.”
A More Durable Model of Giving
The 2025 giving data ultimately proves that the structure of American generosity is fundamentally changing. Capital is increasingly migrating toward estates, being committed for future use rather than immediate deployment, and anchoring itself at the local level through private relationships rather than federal institutions.
For nonprofit leaders, the strategic directive is clear. The organizations best positioned for the decade ahead will not be those that passively ride annual-giving cycles or depend on a single funding stream.
They will be those that recognize what is driving this $617 billion milestone—investing in durable private donor pipelines, embracing long-term estate planning technology, and proactively guiding their supporters to unlock the capital already sitting in holding.
About the Author
Will Nardi, a business analytics professional and freelance journalist, holds master’s degrees in both Applied AI & Business Analytics and Catholic Studies. His writing has appeared in National Review, the Washington Examiner, and CatholicVote’s Zeale.