Donors gave an estimated $4 billion to charities during GivingTuesday, an increase of 13% compared to 2024. Around 38.1 million people gave through a combination of cash, goods, volunteer hours or advocacy. Financial contributions in the United States were made by 19.1 million people, a 3% increase compared to 2024.
The $4 billion does not include the $6.25 billion donation announced by tech magnate Michael Dell and his wife Susan. The Dells’ money is targeted for personal federal savings accounts being set up for qualified children. The gift is $250 for each account to be established next year under legislation that was passed by Congress. The GivingTuesday numbers do not include large corporate or foundation gifts, only from individuals.
“Our data has been showing that Americans are very motivated to give to anyone who needs support – even across differences – right now,” said Woodrow Rosenbaum, chief data officer for GivingTuesday. “But with the media environment being so unusual and nonprofits being under a lot of pressure during a challenging year, I was very pleased to see that organizations, communities and givers found this moment to celebrate generosity together and set a new record for collective action on GivingTuesday.”
The toplines include:
* Total Dollars Donated, US: $4.0 billion, an increase of 13% compared to GivingTuesday 2024
* Total Participants, US: 38.1 million, an increase of 6% compared to GivingTuesday 2024
* Participants who made financial contributions, US: 19.1 million, an increase of 3% compared to GivingTuesday 2024
* Participants who gave goods, US: 13.5 million, an increase of 4% compared to GivingTuesday 2024
* Participants who volunteered, US: 11.1 million, an increase of 20% compared to GivingTuesday 2024
* Participants who spoke out about causes, US: 20.9 million, an increase of 26% compared to GivingTuesday 2024
New national movements launched in several countries this year, including Guatemala, Gambia, Mozambique and Qatar. GivingTuesday also deepened its on-the-ground support for grassroots leaders through its five regional Hubs (Europe, Africa, India, Latin America & the Caribbean, and US & Canada), the GivingTuesday Data Commons and several new initiatives that leveraged generosity and community action to strengthen connection and civic engagement.
Donations went straight to charities via their websites or other direct means, such as various constituent relations management platforms and digital payment platforms for client charities. For example, sources told The NonProfit Times that $430 million was delivered via payment platform Stripe.
GoFundMe brought in $63.3 million for nonprofits from both its consumer platform and through its software, according to a GoFundMe spokesperson. Another $13.5 million was raised for individuals (or non-charity giving) on the consumer platform.
The Bloomerang platform also was busy, with early GivingTuesday results pointing “to one of the strongest giving moments we’ve seen in years,” said Ann Fellman, the company’s chief marketing officer. “Donation volume was up more than 40% year-over-year, even as many nonprofits have been navigating a challenging fundraising environment,” she said. “We also saw powerful shifts in donor behavior. Digital wallet giving grew by more than 82% year-over-year and recurring donations increased by 61%, signaling that more donors are committing to sustained, long-term impact,” she said.
Factoring in the offline gifts, more than $100 million passed through the DonorPerfect platform. There was a 5% increase in donor participation compared to last year and the average gift size was $255, according to Jeff Vogel, vice president of business development for DonorPerfect.
In at least once instance, “multiplatform” included a live event. UNICEF USA raised $7.4 million during GivingTuesday 2025, up from $6.8 million last year. More than $1 million of the 2025 total was generated during the UNICEF Gala, which was held on GivingTuesday in lower Manhattan. The evening was hosted by UNICEF Ambassador Sofia Carson, an actor, singer and producer whose credits include the movies My Oxford Year and Purple Hearts. Grammy Award-winning musician Leon Bridges performed and an afterparty featured a DJ set by Questlove.
An onsite auction at the gala allowed the 450 attendees to purchase humanitarian aid items such as high-performance tents serving as a temporary school or health center, vaccinations for children for life, early childhood development kits and girls empowerment packs.
The day was a bit of a nailbiter for some organizations with donations starting slowly in the morning and gaining strength throughout the day. For example, World Food Program USA was reporting some giving channels were not pulling their weight early on. But donations mostly ended up beating last year’s levels.
“We saw a surge in revenue as the day went on yesterday, resulting in a slight uptick in performance year-over-year. Every dollar counts when feeding hungry women and children around the world, so this is a good indicator for our end-of-the-year giving season,” said Jessamyn Sarmiento, chief marketing officer for World Food Program USA. “We have gratitude for those that choose to donate to save lives. We saw the largest increases across paid search and through the website.”
According to Sarmiento, “At this point we are seeing about a 7% increase in revenue, and donations are still coming in from email, direct mail and other channels. Approximately half of the revenue so far is from new donors,” she said.
The increase in donors matches with Rosenbaum’s thinking. “What’s clear is that the potential for everyday givers is there and there continues to be untapped opportunity. What GivingTuesday this year shows us is that the long-term declining donor trend can be reversed when we broaden engagement and provide opportunities for people to be generous,” said Rosenbaum.
Donors were making decisions about the gifts, not just sending money. Undue Medical Debt abolished “at least $200 million in medical debt for families across 10 states where we know we can make the biggest impact,” according to Marisa Clemente, vice president, philanthropy. She explained that the nonprofit “acquires medical debt in bulk for those least able to pay and every one dollar donated erases, on average, $100 of medical debt.”
A significant trend this year, she said, was the number of donors who want to use the day to incentivize others to give. The donors have “proactively earmarked significant funds specifically for matching gift opportunities to boost community-wide participation,” Clemente said. The early returns show “strong giving across the board, reflecting the broad, bipartisan appeal of financial relief for working families,” she said. “We’re still reconciling and processing the final wave of gifts/calculating the total volume of donations. We’re thrilled to have at least met our match goal. The momentum was so great that we’ll be extending our match until the end of year so that more of our donors can still participate.”
International charity GlobalGiving also had a good day. “What I love most about GivingTuesday is that it shows, year-after-year, how deeply people care about one another. Community organizations around the world are facing rising costs, shrinking budgets and historic cuts to foreign aid – yet the GlobalGiving community stepped forward with extraordinary generosity,” said CEO Victoria Vrana. “We smashed our 2025 GivingTuesday goal, raising $3,338,628 through 14,129 donors for 1,486 activated organizations working closest to the challenges their communities face.”
Goodwill Industries International had a good day, both financially and with goods donated. “The main donations supporting the Goodwill network are donations of clothing, household items and other goods donated to local Goodwill organizations across the country,” explained Caleb Tiller, senior director, public relations.
“Goodwill organizations across the network also accept monetary donations, but goods are the main form of donation. While we’re not able to track those local donations on a day-to-day basis, we can share that on GivingTuesday 2025 Goodwill Industries International saw an increase in the number of donors of three to five times the range we see on a normal day,” Tiller said.
One of the challenges this year for all charities was the increased cost of paid media and the competition for the media spots. Programmatic advertising has yielded a threefold return on ad spend across organizations, according to Adva Priso, chief digital strategy officer of Moore. Google cost per click “is up about 18% over GivingTuesday last year. As a result, return on ad spend is trending down year-over-year but return on ad spend (ROAS) is still positive,” said Priso.
It wasn’t all serious business on GivingTuesday and the days leading up to it. Sara Schairer, founder and executive director of Compassion It, likes to play word games and the name GivingTuesday evolved on her LinkedIn page to something that might be NSFW in some quarters. You can check it out here … https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sjschairer_heres-a-giving-tuesday-idea-im-excited-activity-7399477092046012416-ceEF/
“Year after year, millions of people across the globe make GivingTuesday a priority, not because it’s a trend or because it’s new, but because generosity is woven into how we care for each other,” said GivingTuesday CEO Asha Curran. “The fact that people show up so strongly not just on GivingTuesday, but every single day, in the spirit of generosity, speaks volumes about our ability to unite around a shared vision for a better world.
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The NonProfitTimes’ Senior Reporter Richard H. Levey contributed to this story.
