For nearly a decade the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy has been publishing an annual report titled “11 Trends in Philanthropy.” The report on trends in 2025 was published in March 2025. The list is not intended to be exhaustive, and it is wide in range, including grantmaking strategies, nonprofit management and demographic change. We are not reporting on policy-related trends which are under discussion at this time and may impact the grantmaking decisions of foundations and individual donors.
Part One of this blog will discuss trends in how donors give. Part Two will discuss trends in the causes attracting donors’ attention.
Part One: How Donors Give
Collective Giving Projected to Double in the Next Five Years
Collective giving has a long history, sometimes resulting from structured campaigns (the sale of war bonds in World War II) and sometimes as a spontaneous response to tragedy or disaster (the recent wildfires in California). Increasingly, however, philanthropy in the United States has involved more formal examples of planned cooperative giving designed to bring together like-minded donors to increase the influence and effectiveness of their charitable giving around a specific issue or place. These collectives range from giving circles and community foundation field-of-interest funds to national—and sometimes international—organizations like the Charter School Growth Fund, Climate Works and the Global Fund for Women.
In an earlier report on collective giving, the Johnson Center noted, “Between 2017 and 2023, nearly 4,000 collective giving groups mobilized approximately 370,000 philanthropists to donate more than $3.1 billion—indicating more than 140% growth in both participation and total monetary donations across the movement.” The forecast of continued growth in this area seems warranted, and we will likely see increased interest and calls for collective giving as charitable organizations face increased financial and political pressure.
More Foundations Opt for Planned Lifespans and Spend-Down Strategies
Noting last fall’s decision by Warren Buffet to give his three children only ten years after his death to distribute what remains in his charitable trust, the Johnson Center reports on the growing number of individual donors and foundations deciding to sunset their philanthropy. It is difficult to obtain firm data, but it appears that somewhere between a quarter to a third of grantmakers are considering spending out. In early May, Bill Gates announced the Gates Foundation – the largest U.S. foundation – would also sunset. “I will give away virtually all my wealth through the Gates Foundation over the next 20 years to the cause of saving and improving lives around the world,” he pledged. And on December 31, 2045, the foundation will close its doors permanently.”
Reasons for sunsetting vary from case to case, with some donors focused on maximizing giving to respond to critical present needs, and others who “prioritize giving during their lifetime to avoid a perpetually endowed foundation drifting away from their intent or becoming overly bureaucratic.” In some families, “younger generations may have waning interest in running a family’s foundation well into the future.”
For entrepreneur Chuck Feeney of Atlantic Philanthropies, the motivation to pursue “giving while living” was threefold: to avoid the risk aversion that often comes with a commitment to perpetuity; to maximize the impact of his gifts by giving sooner rather than later and to enjoy the satisfaction derived from seeing the gift’s impact with his own eyes.
Among the considerations involved in sunsetting is its impact on grantees. Donors have utilized a variety of approaches to minimize impact, including early notification of the decision to spend out to both grantees and funder partners, convening grantees who may have interest in collaborating or merging, introducing grantees to new potential funders and making multi-year (perhaps endowment) “closing” grants. Philanthropy Roundtable published two articles on sunsetting in 2024: Sunsetting: A Conversation about Donor Intent with the William E Simon Foundation and Sunsetting in East Michigan: Celebrating the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation.
With Unique Approaches and Millions Raised, Giving Days Grow Up
GivingTuesday launched in 2012 as a way to encourage generosity during the holiday season. As we reported last fall, “It was originally intended to serve as an online counterpoint to the consumerism of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, but it now goes well beyond a one-day event focused primarily on spurring financial gifts.” It has also led charitable organizations across the country to develop their own giving days.
These events have been quite successful attracting first-time donors and encouraging lapsed donors to resume giving. Colleges and universities are using giving days to create a sense of community among current students and alumni by creating various competitions and attracting challenge and match offers from their most generous donors. For small charities and community foundations, giving days are an opportunity to raise local awareness of their impact on the individuals and localities they serve.
“The giving days we’re seeing now,” the Johnson Center notes, “are in many ways an evolution of long-familiar fundraising events — telethons, public media pledge drives — that have been standard and successful practice for decades.” Such events, however, required significant costs and capacities, and “were often the exclusive purview of major charities and well-known causes.” Giving days and the ease of donating online provide charities of all sizes the opportunity to adapt the model for a new century and a new generation of givers.
In late April, Giving Tuesday announced its newest initiative. Later this spring, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported, “The organization will start an ‘accelerator’ to help create community-wide giving and volunteering campaigns through which it believes nonprofits can raise more money, bring people together and earn trust.”
What Does the Future of Volunteering Look Like?
The number of volunteers in the United States has fluctuated through the first quarter of the 21st century. Data from 2002 showed 27.6% of the population aged 16 and over volunteered in that year. The percentage rose to 30% in 2019, dropped to 23.2% by fall 2021 and jumped again to 28.3% by fall 2023.
Maintaining volunteerism at this level, however, is far from certain. As the boomer generation continues to age, it is likely more of them will withdraw from such activity. Will the increased financial pressure now facing charitable organizations permit them to allocate the staff and financial resources needed for effective volunteer management? And will nonprofits adapt successfully to changing models of volunteering?
Younger volunteers are less likely to seek ongoing, regular volunteer responsibilities, the Johnson Center notes. They “seek flexibility and opportunity; they help out when they have time and when the task fits their agenda.” They will be more willing than an older generation of volunteers to take on virtual assignments. While this change in preference may make it easier to recruit volunteers, it risks the loss of the close relationship developed between more traditional volunteers and the organizations they serve on a regular basis. This may, in turn, make it less likely that volunteers will also contribute financially to these organizations.
Changing trends in volunteering increase the need for “investing in meaningful and effective volunteer engagement and management.” This is an aspect of capacity building frequently overlooked by charitable donors, and it rarely appears in the mission statements of foundations. Independent Sector has launched a new—and timely—Strategic Volunteer Engagement Program which “aims to transform the future of volunteerism by supporting nonprofits to effectively engage their volunteer networks, and by providing guidance to funders on how to invest in strategic volunteer engagement.”
