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charitable giving crossed $600 billion in 2025 for the first time on record, a milestone driven not by a broad surge in everyday donors but by a narrower flow of capital from megadonors and estate bequests.
The stock market rally was the underlying engine, inflating the asset bases of the wealthiest Americans and freeing that wealth for philanthropic deployment.
Megadonors and Bequests Move the Needle The topline figure obscures where the money actually originated.
Large-scale donors — individuals giving at the top end of the wealth spectrum — and bequests, meaning gifts transferred through estates after death, account for the structural shift past $600 billion.
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