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Most Americans aren’t making end-of-year charitable giving plans, according to the results of a new AP-NORC poll, despite the many fundraising appeals made by nonprofits that rely on donation surges in the calendar’s final month to reach budget targets.<\/p>\n
The survey, which was conducted in early December by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, found that about half of U.S. adults say they\u2019ve already made their charitable contributions for 2025. Just 18% say they’ve donated and will donate again before the year is over. Only 6% report they haven\u2019t given yet but will do so by December’s end. The rest, 30%, haven’t donated and don’t plan to.<\/p>\n
Everyday donors faced competing priorities this year. President Donald Trump’s social services grant cuts, severe foreign aid rollbacks and November SNAP benefits freeze \u2014 plus natural disasters like Los Angeles’ historically destructive wildfires \u2014 left no shortage of urgent causes in need of heightened support. But weaker income gains and steep price inflation meant lower-income households had less money to redistribute. Other surveys have also found a yearslong decline in the number of individuals who give.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s tax and spending legislation offered an extra 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. Some itemizers may make more gifts this year, though, ahead of a new floor for donation write-offs that takes effect in 2026.<\/p>\n
December still serves as a \u201cvery important deadline\u201d for donors, according to Dianne Chipps Bailey, managing director of Bank of America\u2019s Philanthropic Solutions division. She cited estimates from the National Philanthropic Trust that nearly one-third of annual giving happens in the final month.<\/p>\n
\u201cDecember 31 does provide a target to make sure that they\u2019ve given what they intended to give before the year is over,\u201d Bailey said.<\/p>\n
Perhaps no day is more consequential for fundraisers than GivingTuesday. The well-known celebration of generosity sees many nonprofits leverage the attention to solicit donations on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Americans donated an estimated $4 billion to nonprofits this most recent GivingTuesday.<\/p>\n
But Americans were much 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 to about 1 in 10 who say they donated to a charity for GivingTuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cBlack Friday gets the lion\u2019s share of things,\u201d said Oakley Graham, a 32-year-old from Missouri. \u201cAnd then you\u2019ve got GivingTuesday a couple days later. Most people have probably spent all their spending money at that point.\u201d<\/p>\n
Graham said his family has \u201cdefinitely tightened the financial belt\u201d in recent years. He and his wife are dealing with student loan debts now that the Trump administration suspended their repayment plan. Their two young children are always growing out of their clothes. It’s good if there’s anything left for savings.<\/p>\n
He still tries to help out his neighbors \u2014 from handiwork to Salvation Army clothing donations.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot that I’m not willing to give here and there,\u201d he said. \u201cBut it seems like it’s pretty tough to find the extra funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another avenue for nudging Americans to give is more widely used, even if individual donations are small. The AP-NORC poll found that about 4 in 10 U.S. adults say they donated to a charity when checking out at a store this year.<\/p>\n
Among them is Graham. As an outdoorsy person who enjoys hunting and fishing when he can, he said he is \u201calways susceptible to giving for conservation\u201d \u2014 likely rounding up once or twice at Bass Pro Shops for that reason.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith the finances, I don\u2019t do a lot of buying these days. But a couple cents here or there is like \u2014 I can do that,\u201d he said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t sound like much. But I know if everybody did it would make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n
The poll found that older adults \u2014 those over 60 \u2014 are more likely than Americans overall to donate at store checkouts.<\/p>\n
About one-quarter of Americans plan to donate in the last weeks of the year, and Chuck Dietrick is one of them. The 69-year-old architect applies what he calls a \u201cshotgun approach\u201d as the year comes to a close.<\/p>\n
He and his wife give monthly to Valley Hope, a nonprofit addiction services provider where their son did inpatient rehab. And then there are eight or so organizations that they support with end-of-the-year gifts.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re doing our own thing,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t do Black Friday or Cyber Monday, either \u2026 So, I don\u2019t do the GivingTuesday thing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dietrick estimates their household donated somewhere between $501 and $2,500. The Dallas-Fort Worth area couple mostly contributes to organizations that touched their lives or the lives of their friends.<\/p>\n
There’s the Florida hospice that Dietrick said did a \u201csuper job\u201d caring for his mother. He has relatives and friends who served in the military, so he also gives to the Disabled American Veterans and the Wounded Warrior Project.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would rather give a smaller amount of money to a variety of institutions that I care about rather than giving a big chunk of money to one,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n
Most 2025 donors say the amount they gave wasn’t affected much by this year’s federal funding cuts or the government shutdown, according to the AP-NORC poll, although about 3 in 10 say those situations did impact the charities they chose to support.<\/p>\n
The survey suggests that, while private donors mobilized millions to fill funding gaps and hunger relief groups saw donation totals spike last month, many Americans did not respond with their pocketbooks to the nonprofit sector’s newfound pressures this year.<\/p>\n
The cuts did compel Jeannine Disviscour to give more.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did not donate on GivingTuesday,\u201d the 63-year-old Baltimore teacher said. \u201cBut I did donate that week because I was feeling the need to support organizations that I felt might not continue to get the support they needed to get to be successful.\u201d<\/p>\n
She estimates her household gave between $501 and $2,500. That included support for National Public Radio. Congress eliminated $1.1 billion allocated to public broadcasting this summer, leaving hundreds of NPR stations with some sort of budget hole. She said she wanted to ensure journalism reached news deserts where residents have few media options.<\/p>\n
Living in an area that is home to 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 classes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a gap in funding and there’s more need than ever,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd I wanted to step up. And it’s in my community.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sanders reported from Washington.<\/p>\n
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP\u2019s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP\u2019s philanthropy coverage, visit https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/philanthropy.<\/p>\n
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The AP-NORC poll of 1,146 adults was conducted Dec. 4-8 using a sample drawn from NORC\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com<\/p>\n
#Americans #decide #isnt #year #charity #poll<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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