Most Americans decide 2025 isn’t the year for charity, poll says

The poll, conducted by The Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research in early December, found that about half of American adults say they have already made their charitable contributions for 2025. Only 18% said they have donated and will donate again before the year is out. Only 6% reported that they had not yet donated but would do so by the end of December. The rest, 30%, have not donated and do not plan to donate.

Every day donors faced competing priorities this year. President Donald Trump’s social service grant cuts, severe rollbacks on foreign aid and November’s freeze on SNAP benefits — plus natural disasters like Los Angeles’ historically devastating wildfires — have left no shortage of urgent causes in need of increased support. But weak income gains and severe price inflation meant that low-income households had less money to redistribute. Other surveys have also found a steady decline over years in the number of people donating.

Trump’s tax and spending legislation provided an additional incentive to give more starting in January; Most filers will see new charitable deductions next tax year of up to $1,000 for individuals and $2,000 for married couples. However, some item custodians may give more gifts this year, before a new floor is set for the write-off of donations that takes effect in 2026.

December remains a “very important deadline” for donors, according to Diane Shipps-Bailey, managing director of philanthropic solutions at Bank of America. She cited the National Charitable Trust’s estimate that nearly a third of annual giving occurs in the last month.

“December 31 provides a target to make sure they delivered what they intended to deliver before the year is out,” Bailey said.

Donate a little on GivingTuesday

There is perhaps no day more important for fundraising than GivingTuesday. The well-known celebration of generosity sees many nonprofit organizations capitalize on interest by asking for donations on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Americans donated an estimated $4 billion to nonprofits on the final day of Giving Tuesday.

But Americans were more likely to make a Black Friday purchase than a GivingTuesday gift this year. Just under half say they bought something for Black Friday, according to the poll, compared with about 1 in 10 who say they donated to a charity for GivingTuesday.

“Black Friday does the lion’s share of things,” said Oakley Graham, 32, from Missouri. “Then GivingTuesday comes a few days later. Most people have probably spent all their money at that point.”

Graham said his family has “definitely tightened their financial belt” in recent years. He and his wife are dealing with student loan debt now that the Trump administration has suspended their repayment plan. Their two young children always grow out of their clothes. It’s good to have anything left to save.

He still tries to help his neighbors — from crafts to donations of Salvation Army clothing.

“It doesn’t mean I’m not willing to give here and there,” he said. “But it seems to be very difficult to find extra money.”

The Checkout charity has proven more popular

There is another way to encourage Americans to donate and is more widely used, even if individual donations are small. The AP-NORC poll found that about 4 in 10 American adults say they have donated to a charity at the checkout of a store this year.

Among them is Graham. As someone who loves the outdoors and enjoys hunting and fishing when he can, he said he’s “always willing to give back to the environment” — and will likely wander into Bass Pro Shops once or twice for that reason.

“With the finances, I don’t make a lot of purchases these days. But a few cents here or there — I can do it,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like much. But I know if everyone did it it would make a difference.”

The survey found that seniors — those over 60 — are more likely than Americans overall to donate at the checkout of stores.

One Texas architect’s unusual process for year-end donations

About a quarter of Americans plan to donate in the final weeks of the year, and Chuck Detrick is one of them. The 69-year-old architect is applying what he calls a “shotgun approach” as the year comes to a close.

He and his wife donate monthly to Valley Hope, a nonprofit organization that provides addiction services where their son did inpatient rehab. Then there are eight or so organizations that they support with end-of-year gifts.

“We do our own thing,” he said. “I don’t do Black Friday or Cyber ​​Monday either…so no GivingTuesday.”

Detrick estimates their family donated between $501 and $2,500. The Dallas-Fort Worth area couple contributes mostly to organizations that touch their lives or the lives of their friends.

There is a hospice in Florida that Dietrick said did an “amazing job” of caring for his mother. He has relatives and friends who served in the military, so he also supports disabled American veterans and the Wounded Warrior Project.

“I would rather donate a smaller amount of money to a variety of organizations I care about rather than give a large chunk of money to one organization,” he explained.

Giving plans were not affected by federal funding cuts or the shutdown

Most 2025 donors say the amount they gave was little affected by federal funding cuts this year or the government shutdown, according to the AP-NORC poll, though about 3 in 10 say those situations did affect the charities they chose to support.

The survey suggests that while private donors mobilized millions to fill funding gaps and hunger relief groups saw total donations rise last month, many Americans have not responded with their wallets to the new pressures on the nonprofit sector this year.

The cuts have forced Janine Daviscoeur to give more.

“I didn’t donate on GivingTuesday,” the 63-year-old Baltimore teacher said. “But I donated that week because I felt the need to support organizations that I felt might not continue to get the support they need to succeed.”

She estimates her family donated between $501 and $2,500. This included support for National Public Radio. congress eliminated $1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting this summer, leaving hundreds of National Public Radio (NPR) stations with budget shortfalls. She said she wants to make sure journalism has access to news deserts where residents have few media options.

Because she lives in an area with many refugees, Disviscour also donated her time and money to the Asylee Women Enterprise. She said the local nonprofit helps asylum seekers and other forced migrants find food, shelter, clothing, transportation and language lessons.

“There is a funding gap and there is more need than ever,” she said. “I wanted to step up. And that exists in my community.”

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Sanders reported from Washington.

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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through an AP collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.

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The AP-NORC poll of 1,146 adults was conducted Dec. 4-8 using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for adults overall is plus or minus 4 percentage points.