Donors Forum

Trends in Philanthropy

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March 27, 2025

On March 25, 2025, The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida hosted a Donors Forum at the UNF Adam H. Herbert University Center to discuss Trends in Philanthropy. The featured speaker was Tory Martin, Director of Communications and Strategic Partnerships for the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy, which just released its report 11 Trends in Philanthropy for 2025. The Johnson Center has been releasing a report on philanthropic trends for the last nine years, with the first piece released in 2017. A link to the full 2025 report is here.

Overview of 2025’s 11 Trends in Philanthropy:

1. Collective Giving

In 2017, the Johnson Center identified about 150,000 people across approximately 1,600 giving circle groups that moved $1.29 billion into communities. An updated 2024 study found that the movement had attracted more than 370,000 individuals in nearly 4,000 giving circles, with an estimated impact of $3.1 billion. This is projected to double in the next five years.
In times of high polarization, collective giving can bring people together. Also, while individual donors seem to be declining, collective giving is a response to this and can lead to more impactful and strategic giving.

2. Planned Lifespans and Spend-down Strategies

Limited life or spend-down philanthropy is attaching a particular timeline to the giving or existence of an organization. The Gates Foundation, for example, is the largest spend-down foundation in the world in that once Bill and Melinda have both passed, the foundation has a 20-year timeline to distribute all the money.
Research from the National Committee on Family Philanthropy showed that 13% of family foundations are in spend-down mode, with another 28% considering it. Next-generation donors tend to be more interested in concrete impacts than long-term strategies, so they may consider spend-down a way to see the needle moved and be more impactful.

3. Needs of Rapidly Aging Americans

By 2034, Americans 65 and older will outnumber Americans 18 and younger for the first time in our history. This population has significant needs, especially in rural parts of the country — where more than 1 in 5 older adults live, and which have typically been underinvested in terms of resources and often far away from central services.
Based on Johnson Center analysis, the number of grantmakers funding nonprofits in this space has increased by 225% between 2012 and 2022, but only an estimated 6% of those dollars are going to rural communities. There is a significant gap in where the services are needed and where they are funded.

4. Increasing Efforts to Help Health Care Shortages

By 2026, it is estimated that more than 3 million additional healthcare professionals will be needed in order to meet demands for care. Attrition from the field as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and the soaring cost of medical education have created additional barriers. Uncertainty about the future of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security programs may contribute towards increased needs.
There has been a strong push from major individual philanthropists to get over this hump, including donations of more than $100 million or more to health care education programs to support health care careers. Bloomberg Philanthropies has made gifts to all four historically Black medical schools and to Johns Hopkins University.

5. Surge in Non-profit Lobbying Activities

The non-profit sector has increased in size over the last two decades, naturally resulting in an increase in lobbying activity. The “big five” organizations within the sector have become increasingly sophisticated, better funded and better staffed, which is driving the industry to have effective lobbying, as well as training and resources for individual non-profits. The National Council of Nonprofits is currently leading lobbying efforts on the heels of actions from the new administration.
Specific instances where lobbying has been helpful include the Paycheck Protection Program during COVID-19, which originally excluded non-profits, but lobbying got them included — saving more than 4 million jobs in the sector.

6. Tax “Cliff” in 2025

There have only been two significant rewrites to the tax code since 1969, one in 1986 and one in 2017. In 1969, the 5% mandatory payout was enacted into law.
The administration has made clear how it feels about endowments at higher education institutions, as well as some of the largest private foundations. There is interest in regulating donor-advised funds (DAF), and there are efforts to decrease donor anonymity supports. One of the reasons for the complexity of this issue is disentangling and legislating around campaign donations/political donors versus donations to local non-profits and organizations.

7. Movement to Fund Democracy

The movement for democracy includes such things as voting rights and access, free and fair elections, informed citizenry, and civil public discourse. During the 2022 election cycle, democracy efforts from philanthropy amounted to $9.7 billion, nearly twice that from 2018. There is no IRS data yet from 2024.
Several organizations are working on increased visibility and collaboration across the movement, including a new online data hub related to the democracy movement, which has increased understanding of where funding was going and what it was used for, helped connect organizations, and supported the ability of local journalists to cover democracy and civic space efforts.
There is also a need to convince donors to have a more stable approach to funding; democracy does not only exist in election years or in states where elections are happening. It is critical to improve the understanding of how to keep organizations who are doing democracy work alive and thriving between election years.

8. Evolution and Challenges of Social Justice

Philanthropic support for social justice work has somewhat mirrored a decline in public interest support for this work. Funding for Black communities in 2020 amounted to 1.9% of all philanthropic dollars and had dropped to 1.3% by 2022.
Court cases and rulings around affirmative action and other topics bring challenges to this space and can often have chilling effects on philanthropy efforts.

9. Future of Volunteering

Volunteering peaked in 2019 when around 30% of Americans 16 and older reported volunteering formally with an organization; by 2022, this had dropped to 20%. Half of the more than 1.8 million non-profits are very small with budgets of less than $200,000, and they rely on everyday donors and volunteers — which are on the decline.
There has been a shift toward small-bite/time limited engagement, as well as virtual experience. One example is a platform called catchafire.org, on which non-profits can post projects and individuals can sign up and choose how they are engaged.

10. Affordable Housing

This is a national crisis with distinct local impacts and experiences. Housing stock has not kept up with demand, and building materials have been incredibly expensive. These challenges will only increase with aluminum and steel tariffs.
The solution needs to be multi-sector, and philanthropy can play a very important role in convening those sectors, making economic arguments, and funding reports and other pieces that help show opportunities where they exist.

11. Non-profit Workforce Crisis

Many non-profits have experience persistent job vacancies, and a study showed that 95% of executives were concerned about their own burnout and burnout of staff. In another study, 22% of non-profit workers said they live in households unable to afford basic necessities, including housing and health care.
While there in increasing need for salary increases and training, funders have not responded to this need. And the typical non-profit could not cover its needs without federal funding. Seventy percent of non-profits in Florida are at risk for closure if all federal funding was withdrawn.

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