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most of Americans Despite numerous fundraising appeals, nonprofits that rely on donation growth in the final month of the calendar to reach budget targets are not planning for year-end charitable giving, according to the results of a new AP-NORC survey.
The poll conducted in early December by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that nearly half of American adults say they have already made their charitable contributions for 2025. Only 18% say they have donated and will donate again before the year is out. Only 6% have not yet reported but will do so by the end of December. The remaining, 30% have not donated nor are planning to donate.
Every day donors faced competing priorities this year. chairman donald trumpcuts in funding for social services, severe foreign aid withdrawal and November snap Benefits stopped – so did natural disasters los angeles‘Historically devastating wildfires – left no shortage of urgent causes requiring immediate support. Trump’s tax and spending law also offered additional stimulus; Most tax filers will get a new charitable deduction of up to $1,000 for individuals and $2,000 for married couples.
But weak income gains and massive price inflation meant that low-income households had less money to redistribute. Other surveys have also shown a decline over the years in the number of people donating.
According to Dianne Chipps Bailey, managing director of Bank of America’s Philanthropic Solutions Division, December still serves as a “very important deadline” for donors. He cited the National Charitable Trust’s estimate that about a third of annual donations occur in the final month.
“December 31st provides a goal to make sure they’ve given what they wanted to give before the year is out,” Bailey said.
Few people donate on GivingTuesday
Perhaps there is no day more important to fundraisers than GivingTuesday. Beginning as a hashtag in 2012, the famous celebration of generosity now sees many nonprofits focusing on soliciting donations on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving. Americans donated an estimated $4 billion to nonprofits this latest GivingTuesday.
But this year Americans were more likely to make Black Friday purchases than GivingTuesday gifts. According to the survey, less than half say they bought something for Black Friday, while nearly 1 in 10 say they donated to a charity for GivingTuesday.
“Black Friday gets a huge amount of stuff,” said Oakley Graham, 32, of Missouri. “And then you’ve got GivingTuesday a few days later. Most people have probably spent all their money by then.”
Graham said his family has “definitely had a tight financial situation” in recent years. He and his wife are now dealing with student loans because the Trump administration has suspended their repayment plan. Their two young children are always outgrowing their clothes. It is good to have something left for savings.
He still tries to help his neighbors – with handicrafts ranging from salvation Army Donating clothes.
“It’s not that I’m not willing to give here and there,” he said. “But it seems that raising additional funds is very difficult.”
Checkout charity proves more popular
Another method of motivating Americans to donate is more widely used, even if individual donations are small. The AP-NORC survey found that nearly 4 in 10 American adults said they have donated to a charity when checking out a store this year.
Graham is among those who reported giving at the cash register. As an outdoorsman who enjoys hunting and fishing whenever possible, he said he is “always sensitive to donations to conservation.” He said he probably visited Bass Pro Shops once or twice for the same reason.
He said, “Due to financial situation, I don’t do a lot of shopping these days. But a cent or two here or there is something I can do.” “It doesn’t seem like much. But I know if everyone did this it would make a difference.”
The survey found that older adults — those over the age of 60 — are more likely than Americans overall to donate at store checkout.
A Texas architect’s unusual process for year-end donations
Nearly one-quarter of Americans plan to donate in the final weeks of the year, and Chuck Dietrich is one of them. The 69-year-old architect applies what he calls a “shotgun approach” to closing the year.
He and his wife make monthly donations to Valley Hope, a non-profit addiction services provider where their son received in-patient rehabilitation. And then there are about eight organizations that they support with year-end gifts.
“We’re doing our thing,” he said. “I don’t even do Black Friday or Cyber Monday… so, I don’t do the GivingTuesday thing.”
Detrick estimates his family has donated between $501 and $2,500. This couple from the Dallas-Fort Worth area mostly contributes to organizations that have impacted their or their friends’ lives.
There is a hospice in Florida that Dietrick said has done a “great job” of caring for her mother. He has relatives and friends who served in the military, so he also donates to the Disabled American Veterans and the Wounded Warrior Project.
“I’d rather give small amounts to different organizations I care about than give a large amount to any one person,” he said.
Giving plans remained unaffected by federal funding cuts or shutdowns.
According to the AP-NORC survey, most 2025 donors say the amount they gave was not much affected by this year’s federal funding cuts or government shutdown, although nearly 3 in 10 say those conditions affected the donors they chose to support.
The survey shows that, while private donors raised millions to plug funding shortfalls and hunger relief groups saw donation totals increase last month, many Americans have not responded to the new pressures on the nonprofit sector with their pocketbooks this year.
Jeanine Disdiscover, a 63-year-old teacher from Baltimore, is among the 2025 donors who say the cuts motivated them to give more.
“I didn’t donate on GivingTuesday,” she said. “But I donated that week because I felt the need to support organizations that I felt might not get the support they needed to succeed.”
He estimates his family gave between $501 and $2,500. This included support for National Public Radio. Congress eliminated $1.1 billion allocated for public broadcasting this summer, leaving hundreds of NPR stations facing some form of budget shortfall. She said she wanted to ensure that journalism reached news areas where residents have few media options.
Living in an area that is home to many refugees, Disquisor also donated her time and money to the Asylum Women Enterprise. She said the local nonprofit helps asylum seekers and other forced migrants find food, shelter, clothing, transportation and language classes.
“There is a gap in funding and the need is greater than ever,” he said. “And I wanted to move forward. And this is in my community.”
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Sanders reported from Washington.
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Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits is supported through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. 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 survey 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.