Giving USA 2025: Americans are Generous!
Before we dig into this year’s Giving USA numbers, I have three words for my United Methodist clergy friends: Happy New Year!
If you aren’t familiar with the UMC, July 1 marks the beginning of the Methodist new year. Pastors will preach their first sermon to their new congregations (good luck) and returning pastors mark their “anniversary” of when they started with their current congregations (go and celebrate). It’s a fresh start. May God give you all a great year ahead.
I know, I know, you’ve all been sitting on pins and needles (what a visual that is) awaiting the 2025 annual Giving USA Report. As I have mentioned for years, the Giving USA Annual Report on Philanthropy is a publication of Giving USA Foundation and is researched and written by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. It’s the annual measure of generosity in the United States.
Here’s the good news:
Americans were more generous in 2024.
In 2023, giving by individuals, foundations, corporations, and bequests equaled $557 billion.
In 2024, giving by those same groups equaled $590 billion – up 8.2%.
Individual giving went up too (by dollar amount).
In 2023, 67% of philanthropy was generated by individuals ($374 billion).
In 2024, 66% was generated by individuals ($392 billion – up 8.2%)
There’s always a catch. As one expert in a webinar I attended said, the number of “donors were down but dollars were up.” To say it another way, your higher-end donors are giving more while others are giving at the same rate or less.
Where did the money go?
Once again, religious giving was the highest recipient of financial gifts. In fact, it represented 23% of all giving. That’s good news, right?
Unfortunately, the downward trend for religious giving continues.
In 2023, 24% of all giving went to religious causes.
It went down by 1% this year.
However – here’s the caveat – the total amount given went up this year (hooray!).
In 2023, $145 billion went to religious causes.
In 2024, total giving to religious causes went up to $147 billion – a 1.9% increase.
What does this mean for you? Here are three things:
Tell your story. I can assure you, just because people sit in your pews week after week, they don’t really know what goes on for the six days in between or during the hours before or after church either. Find a way in worship, in your newsletter, social media, and through thank you letters to let your people know what their generous gifts to God are going to fund.
Get your staff on board. Take one or two staff meetings to talk about generosity and why it’s important. Save five minutes for storytelling at the end of a meeting – let your staff give you stories that you can share with the congregation. Read a book together about giving.
Emphasize legacy giving. Of all donations, bequests, wills and legacy giving represents only 8% of the total giving in the United Sates. 68% of all Americans do not have a will. That’s an untapped pool of generosity. Here’s a shameless plug for an upcoming webinar I’m leading on August 12th - Legacy Giving 101: Developing a Simple Program for your Congregation from 11am-12pm and from 7-8pm. More information and a link to sign up will be provided in future posts.
Your congregation is in the generosity business. How you provide spiritual nourishment, solace, service to the community, education, vision, a prophetic voice…it all comes back to generosity. Making your congregation’s vision and mission a reality requires a financial investment.
Let the Giving USA 2025 report remind you that folks are generous…you just may need to remind your people of it.
Want to know more? Check out the webinar I recently attended: Insights and Perspectives from Giving USA’s Lead Researcher: Unveiling the 2025 Results.
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Cesie Delve Scheuermann (pronounced “CC Delv Sherman,” yes, really) is a Stewardship Consultant for the OR-ID Annual Conference. She is also a Senior Ministry Strategist with Horizons Stewardship – helping with capital campaigns and encouraging more generosity. For 25 years, while working as a volunteer and part-time consultant, she has helped raise over three million dollars for numerous churches and non-profit organizations.
You can reach Cesie at inspiringgeneorsity@gmail.com, at CesieScheuermann.com, or at cesieds@horizons.net. Want to schedule a meeting? She’s got you covered. Click on the link below. Cesie is all about educating the next generation, here’s a classic clip from the Honeymooners about “needles and pins.”
Schedule a meeting now.
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