Wealthy Americans Are Giving Less to Charity. This Is the Main Reason.

The affluent aren’t shunning philanthropy completely. Many are volunteering their time to causes that are aligned with their values, according to one study. (Rose GASSOT /AFP via Getty Images)

Key Points

• The percentage of affluent households donating to charity decreased from 91% to 81% over the last decade.
• Inflation-adjusted charitable giving by affluent households declined 1.4% to $33,291, despite a 30% nominal increase.
• A primary reason for not donating was prioritizing family needs, cited by 45% of households in 2024.

Fewer affluent Americans donated to charitable organizations in the last decade as they prioritized their own families, and those who did give gave fewer dollars when adjusted for inflation, according to a biennial study from Bank of America.

The percentage of households with at least $1 million in assets, or annual income of $200,000, that made charitable contributions fell to 81% in 2024 from 91% in 2015, according to the study, which was conducted with the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.

The biggest reason households provided for not donating was “their priority was to take care of family needs.” Of those surveyed, 45% cited family in 2024, up from 27% nine years earlier, the study said.

Meanwhile, the total amount that affluent households donated rose 30% in nominal terms from 2015-24 to an average of $33,291—more than 10 times that amount donated by the general population, the study said. But when adjusted for inflation, giving slipped 1.4% from $33,761 in 2015, data provided by Lilly Family School of Philanthropy shows.

“Clearly, the pressure on being able to prioritize family’s needs is significant,” says Dianne Chipps Bailey, national philanthropic strategy executive at Bank of America Private Bank.

The research for the study was based on a nationwide sample of about 1,500 households. The cutoff was $1 million in net worth (outside of owning a home) and/or annual household income of $200,000 or more. Those who responded had a median net worth of $2 million and a median income of $350,000.

The research is being released as nonprofits are under increasing pressure on a number of fronts. They have been subject to cuts or freezes in government funding, and the federal tax and spending package enacted into law in July includes provisions that disincentivize giving by wealthy individuals and corporations, according to the National Council of Nonprofits.

Just last week, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum directing the government “to investigate, prosecute, and disrupt nonprofit organizations the administration claims is supporting or funding domestic terrorism,” the council wrote, giving the government leeway to attack nonprofits it doesn’t like.

“Knowledge of the nonprofit sector across the population—and that would extend to our policymakers—is pretty surface,” says Amir Pasic, dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. “When we see policymakers make these broad statements about what the nonprofit sector is or isn’t, it’s kind of hard to tell how the population in general will receive it because the knowledge base does not seem to be very robust.”

A separate study from the Lilly Family School conducted in 2023 found only 5.4% believed they or anyone in their immediate family received services from a nonprofit—far less than was actually the case, given the role many of these organizations play in education, disaster relief, amateur athletics, civic beautification, and the arts, the report said.

The current study, in fact, found that only 4% of respondents view themselves as experts in charitable giving, with 46% considering themselves knowledgeable, and 50% considering themselves novices. On average, those who identify themselves as experts give six times more than those who identify as novices.

Bailey has found the most support and generosity from donors for nonprofits is among those who are closest to these organizations, such as current and past board members. “Where we’re seeing more of is a wait-and-see is with the broader group of donors…so much movement and uncertainty does have a chilling effect.”

In the current study, lower levels of giving mainly showed up among younger, less wealthy participants, Bailey says. Of households who didn’t donate last year, 40% were worth less than $1 million and 47% were their late-20s to early 40s, the study said.

Non-donors also cited the economy and taxes as concerns. “While none of these factors fully explain giving behaviors, they collectively paint a picture of individuals who may be feeling more uncertain about their economic outlook in the wake of the disruptive events of the past years,” the report said.

Some of these households also said they didn’t give because they “didn’t have a connection to a nonprofit or they simply weren’t asked,” Bailey says. That is a clue “for nonprofits to be more intentional and specific with these potential donors.”

Non-donors aren’t shunning philanthropy, necessarily. Many are volunteering, and they are giving back through “conscious consumerism,” buying products and services aligned with their values, she says.

Jon Bergdoll, the Lilly Family School’s interim director of data and research partnerships, said many of these conscious consumers are the “mythical unicorn,” for nonprofits seeking potential donors. They are younger, educated, and many want to give back.

“Consistently we found when we were digging into the data on these folks that there is a desire for more knowledge,” Bergdoll says. They want to engage more, they want to know more about how to give or where to give. And they really are desirous of linking up their issues with what they do with their money—whether that’s conscious consumerism or whether that’s giving.”

Also notable in the study was a significant rise in participation among wealthier respondents. Of those with $5 million or more (2% of survey respondents), 87% contributed to charity in 2024, the study said.

There was also a rise in volunteering, with 43% of those surveyed volunteering their time in 2024, up from a low of 30% in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic kept people at home. Bailey finds the uptick encouraging.

“It’s a gateway to giving,” she says. “A great way to understand your impact is to see it on the front line.”

Write to Abby Schultz at abby.schultz@barrons.com