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By Richard H. Levey
Global philanthropy begins at home — and stays there, according to new research. On the positive side, more than six in 10 (61%) of 95 global economies studied for the period between January 2021 through December 2023 show positive internal charitable environments.
That money is not flowing from country to country: cross-border philanthropic flows continue to decline, according to information in The Global Philanthropy Environment Index 2025 (GPEI), a new report from The Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
The shifts in philanthropic behavior come amid myriad influences, positive and negative. During the period analyzed, the global economy balanced the negative impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, rising inflation, global warming and other natural disasters, armed conflict and mass human displacement with widespread benefits from innovation advances, including gains in the power and use of artificial intelligence. Philanthropy played a role in either mitigating or advancing each of these factors, according to the report’s authors.
The largesse was not spread equally, however. The GPEI evaluated each economy on a one-to-five scale for six factors: ease of operating a philanthropic organization; tax incentives; cross-border philanthropic flows; political environment; economic environment; and, socio-cultural environment. The higher the score, the more hospitable a country’s policies were toward philanthropy. The report considers any country that scores 3.5 or higher in all six categories as having a “favorable philanthropic environment.”
The economies generated an overall average score of 3.60, with average scores for each factor as follows:
Ease of operating a philanthropic organization: 4.01
Socio-cultural environment: 3.83
Tax incentives: 3.48
Political environment: 3.48
Economic environment: 3.41
Cross-borders philanthropic flows: 3.40
Western Europe proved the most hospitable region for philanthropic efforts, with countries grouped in that region scoring “well above” 3.5 in all six factors, according to the report authors. In contrast, Latin America was deemed “the most challenging philanthropic environment,” scoring below 3.5 in five of the six categories.
Among individual countries, those scoring between 1.50 and 1.99, the lowest rank, included Belarus, Bolivia, Myanmar, Sudan, Venezuela. Economies scoring in the highest rank included Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Singapore, Sweden and Switzerland. The United States, Canada and the United Kingdom scored in the second-highest tier, joining economies in the 4.00-4.49 range.
The report authors noted a correlation between government support for environmental action and climate change reform and favorable philanthropic milieus. Specifically, governments that created or facilitated barriers to addressing these concerns, such as a lack of public awareness about climate change or insufficient government funding for philanthropic organizations investing in system solutions usually indicated less-than-favorable overall philanthropic environments.
Among the report’s other findings:
* The Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East/North Africa regions made significant improvements in easing conditions for philanthropic organizations to operate.
* Cross-border philanthropy remained challenging in the Middle East/North Africa and southern and southeast Asia regions. These two areas were joined by Latin America in the dubious achievement of being the world’s most challenging regions for dispensing international aid.
* Southern Europe embraced “professionalization” — a heightened focus on training and credentialing — as digital spaces for work and fundraising flourished
The GPEI’s authors made six recommendations for improving the philanthropic environment within countries and regions. But as the authors noted, “these recommendations are informed by the local context and may not directly apply to all situations.” The six recommendations are:
- Improve the legal framework with enhanced clarity and fewer restrictions
- Streamline administrative procedures, including through digitalization
- Support transparency in giving without discouraging philanthropy
- Consider proportionality in requirements
- Enhance collaboration between government and philanthropy, including on issues like climate change
- Build the capacity of philanthropic organizations through enhanced philanthropic infrastructure
The executive summary and the full report, which offers detailed breakdowns of the results by region as well as select longer-term historical data, are both available here: https://globalindices.indianapolis.iu.edu/environment-index/themes/index.html
