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The top-net-worth donors continued to give during 2025, and higher education outlets remained the top recipients of that largesse. With the exception of contributions to private foundations, gifts to higher education institutions made up 71%, or around $10 billion, of all gifts in excess of $10 million. That percentage marked the highest directed toward this category since 2018.
The second-most-funded category, healthcare nonprofits, did not take in as much as during the past few years. Nonetheless, they are still receiving funding in excess of pre-2020 levels. In 2025, this category received $1.7 billion, or 12% of all $10+ million donations, marking the first sub-$2 billion year since 2020, when donors began responding, in part to the COVID-19 crisis.
The arts, which had “an exceptional year” in 2024 when they received 8% of all such large gifts, saw a “normalization” of the number of donations, to 5%, according to 10M+Gifts Report: Analysis of Gifts Given in 2025, a new report from fundraising consulting firm Marts&Lundy.
The remainder of the large donations went either to independent schools or a variety of other recipients such as community foundations, environmental organizations, general education and human and social services.
Donation trends reflected fundraising professionals’ increasing focus on planned giving, as the number of anticipated planned gifts increased. Around 6% of all gifts in the $10 million+ category ($781.9 million) were generated through planned giving programs. While the dollar amount was constant with 2024’s $780.4 million, the number of donors employing a planned gift strategy rose from 22 in 2024 to 33 in 2025.
By several measures, the top tier of donors — those gifting at least $10 million — continued recent trends of increased activity. During 2025, the number of these gifts tracked reached 355, up from 322 in 2024 and 287 in 2023. This exclusive donor class is expanding in numbers as well. Last year, these gifts were made by 257 individuals, up from 242 a year earlier and 214 in 2023.
Gift sizes saw the biggest jump of all between 2024 and 2025: Last year, the average gift size among these donors was $14.18 million, up from $11.78 million in 2024 and $11.28 in 2023. Last year’s increase was spurred primarily by more donations in the $10 million to $24 million range (200 of which were made in 2025, up from 179 in 2024) and the $50 million-$99 million range (59 made in 2025, as opposed to 42 in 2024).
Gifts to higher education recipients were led by several boldface names. Nike co-founder Phil Knight, along with his wife Penny, made a $2 billion donation to the Oregon Health & Science University Knight Center Institute in August 2025. MacKenzie Scott, the runner-up donor to higher education causes, spread $1.1 billion among 32 such gifts to colleges and universities.
California was the state most likely to receive these gifts, with 35 such donations made to schools within that state. New York schools received the second-most number of such gifts (25), followed by Pennsylvania schools (18), Illinois schools (13) and Virginia schools (11). Ranked by total value of gifts received, the Knights’ contribution propelled Oregon to the top of the list ($2.08 billion) followed by California schools ($1.08 billion), New York schools ($908 million), Pennsylvania schools ($650 million) and Michigan schools ($546 million).
A full copy of the report is available here: https://martsandlundy.com/special-report-10m-gifts-2026/
