Expanding definitions of generosity: Global and U.S. trends in helping others
What does GivingTuesday’s State of Generosity report say about trends in civic commitment to helping others, the role remittances from overseas workers play in global aid, and community and belonging?
At GivingTuesday, every year we use recent data to define the “State of Generosity” around the world, and every year we cross our fingers that nothing is trending downward. That’s even more true in times of political unrest and amid threats to the nonprofit sector.
Our findings utilizing 2025 data are more nuanced than the trendlines would suggest, demonstrating resilience, as measured in rates of participation in generous actions. This year, we used multiple sources: our own surveys in seven countries (Brazil, Canada, Great Britain, India, Kenya, Mexico, and the United States), the Charities Aid Foundation’s World Giving Index, and the Global Flourishing Study. These provide a country-by-country comparison of how individuals express their commitment to the common good through recent acts of generosity, community-mindedness, and how people are more willing to help others they may disagree with.
We also tried new methods to paint a more robust picture of generous behaviors. For example, we found that when adjusting for household income, and not focusing exclusively on monetary giving, countries like Indonesia and Nigeria are among the most generous in the world, far more so than countries previously seen as the most generous, like the U.S.
Civic intent: Kenyans, Indians lead the world in their commitment to the common good
In our survey data, countries like Kenya and India continued to score very high on Civic Intent, a framework we use to capture how individuals express their commitment to the common good through acts of generosity and community-mindedness. We find that the countries with the strongest civic commitment are also the most willing to give across ideological lines. Of the seven nations surveyed, this year Great Britain ranked lowest on this measure.
Individual monetary giving: Remittances are double government and philanthropic aid
Compiling various funding flows helps us measure how individuals are monetarily supporting their communities around the world. That’s why it’s important to highlight that in 2025, global giving from individuals—remittances, donations to nonprofits, bequests, giving to/through congregations, and donor-advised fund gifts—totaled about $1.6 trillion. As in 2024, this accounts for a larger share of money than institutional sources, such as government aid and U.S. private and corporate philanthropy, which amounted to $328 billion in 2025.
Remittances—money sent home by overseas workers—are the single largest source of global aid, totaling $690 billion—more than double the government and U.S. philanthropic dollars allocated. Yet remittances are rarely discussed in what other experts describe as philanthropy. We include them because of the outsized impact they likely are having on aid overall. About 75% of that $690 billion remains with recipient families, used to pay for immediate needs like food, medicine, school, and utilities. About half of global remittances flow to rural areas.
U.S. trends: Generosity and belonging are growing
Our 2025 U.S. survey data showed a welcome rebound in generosity, with higher percentages of people donating money (58%), items (68.6%), and time (49.7%). Volunteering (49.7%) saw the largest gain, up 9 percentage points. Even better, people who were doing one mode of giving before are now increasingly giving in multiple ways, and that number is growing faster than people who gave in just one mode.
A shift toward personal forms of generosity: We also observed a broader shift among younger adults in the U.S., away from institutional giving and more toward personal forms of generosity—especially those ages 35 to 49, who were more than twice as likely to have given directly to someone in need (55%) than to a charity (25%).
Across age groups, we found a strong sense of responsibility and willingness to support people with different views, while there was also an increase in a sense of community belonging. Depolarizing views grew 3.8% in the U.S., the most in the seven countries we track. All of this runs counter to prevailing political narratives about social cohesion in the country.
And yet, according to the Global Flourishing Survey, Americans are still below the global average when it comes to helping strangers. At the same time, the U.S. scores above average for monetary giving and volunteering—which suggests that a lot of that giving is done closer to home.
The global portrait of giving is as diverse as the populations surveyed, but the one through line is that we have plenty of evidence that generosity abounds, in many forms.
Photo credit: GivingTuesday
