What the 2025 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy Reveals About Today’s Donors

A version of this piece first appeared on Giving USA and The Giving Institute. We’ve expanded it here with added guidance for fundraisers.

Turning Big Into Bigger: Engaging Your Major Donors With Data-Informed Strategies

The 2025 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy: Charitable Giving by Affluent Households, conducted in partnership with Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, provides both continuity and change.¹ Affluent Americans remain incredibly generous, with 81% of affluent households making charitable contributions, on average giving $33,219 to charity — more than 10 times the giving level of the general population.

However, nonprofits face stiffer competition for dollars each year as donor retention rates decline; the percentage of affluent households that give to charity has decreased from 90% to 81% since 2017. Additionally, the “why” and “how” behind affluent donors giving are shifting in subtle but important ways.

So how can your nonprofit keep up? Here are six insights – and their practical applications – to help you turn the data into a strategy for success.

• Motivations for Giving are Personal and Diverse: 68% of affluent donors cite their values/beliefs as the top factor motivating where they choose to give. However, these values differ across various demographics. For example, while nearly 80% give locally, younger individuals are more likely to support global and racial justice causes, whereas older individuals tend toward religious organizations, and women are more likely to support basic needs.

  • What this means: Your philanthropic strategy cannot be one-size-fits-all. Different donors will have different interests in your work and your mission, and your fundraising needs to be adaptable to appeal across a spectrum. For mass donor communications, consider segmenting your donors into two to three categories and customizing your messaging to each group accordingly. Go beyond wealth or capacity to align these appeals to values, identity, and giving history. The question isn’t only “Who can give?” but “What motivates them to care?” Consider surveying your donors to understand trends in your donor’s giving motivation and patterns.

• Engagement Drives Generosity: Volunteerism is on the rise, with nearly half (43%) of affluent households volunteering their time, up 6% in the last two years. The average volunteer spent over 120 hours giving back. Donating time and talent correlated with an increased giving—these engaged donor-volunteers gave nearly three times more than non-volunteers.
  • What this means: Providing meaningful volunteer opportunities can strengthen your donor pipeline. Treat your volunteers as potential donors. Make sure they are being thanked and shown the difference they’ve made. Likewise, leverage volunteer opportunities as an invitation for current and prospective donors to experience your mission. For more ideas on stewarding volunteers, check out our blog post on “Engaging Your Volunteers for Fundraising Success.“

• Donor Confidence Correlates to Giving: 93% of affluent households indicated they are more likely to give when they believed their contribution would make a difference. Donors who self-identified as “experts” were more likely to make larger contributions, though half of affluent households described themselves as “novices” in charitable giving. On average, those who identified themselves as novices gave less ($4,466) compared to those who identified as knowledgeable ($12,070) or expert ($28,350). Additionally (and importantly), donors depend on the nonprofits to whom they give (33%) to help them make personal giving decisions.

  • What this means: Donors rely on nonprofits to understand how their dollars are being used. Fundraisers have a unique opportunity to educate their donors. Nonprofits play an important role in helping donors understand giving vehicles, define and measure their impact, and achieve their personal charitable goals. Regularly connecting with your major donors by hosting educational sessions, providing customized reports, dashboards, and sharing study takeaways and research trends (like this study or Giving USA 2025) are all great opportunities to answer their questions and empower them to become philanthropic “experts.”

• Donors Expect Sophisticated Giving Options: Charitable giving vehicles such as private foundations, donor-advised funds (DAFs) and qualified charitable donations (QCDs) are becoming more common, with 18% of affluent donors using a giving vehicle to make a charitable gift in 2024. Nearly one-quarter of affluent households now have a giving vehicle, and 48% of households worth $5–$20 million have or plan to establish one within the next three years. And the donors we mentioned in the previous bullet, who self-identified as “experts” and give on average nearly 7 times larger gifts? They’re significantly more likely to use giving vehicles.

  • What this means: Understanding donor intent, tax-efficient strategies and the range of giving vehicles is critical for effective relationship-based fundraising. Provide options for different ways to support your mission, such as online gifts, DAFs, QCDs, stock options, in-kind contributions or planned giving. Train your development team on how to facilitate these gifts and make it easy for donors to give through their preferred method. Not sure where to begin? Check out our webinar on Navigating the Range of Giving Vehicles, or our blog posts on how to discuss legacy giving or the new tax policy with your donors.

• People Give to People: 87% of affluent households found their giving personally fulfilling and half (50%) gave to organizations where they knew someone who had directly benefited. Alternatively, among affluent households that don’t give, one in four cite a lack of personal connection to an organization, and nearly one in five say they were not personally asked.

  • What this means: Personal connections and relationships are the lifeblood of nonprofit fundraising. Donors should hear from you throughout the year, not just when asking for their support. Find ways to share program updates or invite donors to events, so that they can see their support in action. Personalize your outreach; a handwritten note or remembering a birthday mean a lot to your supporters, and will strengthen your relationship. Using AI tools can help you free up time to focus on relationship-building, and my colleagues explore more tips for retaining donors in our webinar “How to Keep Your Donors Happy—and Giving.”

• Transparency and Trust Remain Non-Negotiable: Affluent donors increasingly approach giving like investors: they expect measurable results, clear communication, and alignment with their personal values. The majority (62%) of affluent households monitor or evaluate the impact of their charitable giving before their next gift, and the larger the gift, the more in-depth reporting was expected.

  • What this means: Investing in your organization’s data-collection efforts will pay dividends, so be sure to measure and track your organization’s impact. Treat reporting as an act of stewardship, not compliance. Personalized impact reports, pre-emptive updates, and open conversations about outcomes strengthen donor confidence. Transparency isn’t just good ethics—it’s good fundraising.

The Bottom Line: What this Means for Our Sector

Bank of America’s 2025 Study of Philanthropy: Charitable Giving by Affluent Households reinforces that successful fundraising is built on genuine relationships. Your major donors aren’t a monolith— they differ in motivation, identity, communication preferences and philanthropic sophistication. This research challenges us to build smarter systems: segmented engagement pipelines, dynamic communication strategies and capacity for personalized stewardship.

At The Curtis Group, we believe that data should deepen relationships, not distance them. When we interpret research through the lens of human connection, insight becomes impact—and generosity follows.

How else can you use data trends from this study in your fundraising strategy? We’re here to help! Reach out to The Curtis Group, and let’s brainstorm together.

¹ The tenth in their biennial series, this study highlights trends in charitable giving and volunteering among affluent donors, which they define as households with a net worth of more than $1 million (excluding the value of their primary residence) and/or an annual household income of $200,000 or more.