Contents
- Charitable giving participation statistics: How participation varies across survey measures
- Charitable giving participation statistics by age and region
- Charitable giving participation statistics: Causes and recipient types
- Charitable giving participation statistics across donation methods
- Charitable giving participation statistics: Appeals and responses
- Charitable giving participation statistics in Canadian tax records
- Sources
Charitable giving participation statistics: How participation varies across survey measures
“Participation” can mean different things depending on the question. A weekly survey that asks about money, donated items, volunteering and advocacy captures a wider set of generous actions than a survey asking whether someone donated or sponsored a charity during a year. Tax records measure something narrower still: donations reported to the tax authority. The percentages below are useful when read alongside each measure’s population, time window and definition.
GivingPulse’s US survey reported that 65.4% of respondents gave in any tracked form in 2025. That composite included 39.2% who gave money, 40.6% who donated items, 26.4% who volunteered and 20.2% who advocated. These actions may overlap, so the component percentages should not be added to recreate the overall figure. The report describes GivingPulse as a weekly cross-sectional online survey tracking generous actions in the past week; its 2025 annual respondent count was 5,309. Source: Resilient Generosity: US Giving, Trust, and Belonging in 2025
| GivingPulse US measure | 2025 respondents |
|---|---|
| Gave in any tracked form | 65.4% |
| Gave money | 39.2% |
| Donated items | 40.6% |
| Volunteered | 26.4% |
| Advocated | 20.2% |
The money-giving measure was 36.4% in 2024 and 39.2% in 2025. Those are annual survey results for different respondent counts: 6,301 in 2024 and 5,309 in 2025. They describe reported giving in the past week, not the share that gave at any point during each calendar year. Source: Resilient Generosity: US Giving, Trust, and Belonging in 2025
Canada’s Survey on Giving, Volunteering and Participating (SGVP) uses a broader annual frame. Among people aged 15 and older in the 10 provinces, the share reporting a donation declined from 68% in 2018 to 54% in 2023. The target population excludes full-time institutional residents and First Nations reserve residents. These survey estimates are not interchangeable with weekly US results or annual UK measures because their questions, populations and reference periods differ. Source: The Daily — Volunteering and charitable giving in Canada, 2018 to 2023
In 2023, the SGVP estimated 17.8 million Canadian survey-defined donors contributed $13.4 billion. In the same year, just over 5 million tax filers reported donations totaling $12.8 billion. The gap reflects different coverage: the survey can include gifts that do not qualify for tax receipts, whereas tax data cover claimed donations to charities and approved organizations for which receipts were provided. Source: The Daily — Volunteering and charitable giving in Canada, 2018 to 2023
Charitable giving participation statistics by age and region
UK annual survey results show participation rising across the reported age groups in 2024. Among respondents who were asked whether they had donated or sponsored for charity in the past 12 months, 36% of those aged 16–24 said yes, compared with 50% of ages 25–44, 60% of ages 45–64 and 67% of those aged 65 or older. The age-group sample sizes were approximately 1,400, 4,000, 4,400 and 3,300, respectively. This is an age pattern in the survey’s combined donation-or-sponsorship measure; it does not establish why the groups differed. Source: UK Giving Report 2025
| UK age group | Donated or sponsored in past 12 months, 2024 |
|---|---|
| 16–24 | 36% |
| 25–44 | 50% |
| 45–64 | 60% |
| 65+ | 67% |
For ages 16–24, the report also gives a 2017 comparison: 55% had donated or sponsored in the past 12 months, versus 36% in 2024. This is a seven-year comparison of survey responses, not a record following the same individuals over time. Source: UK Giving Report 2025
Regional results in the UK report show different levels and changes. In London, 49% reported donating or sponsoring in 2024, compared with 64% in 2017. Wales recorded 61% in 2024 and 68% in 2017; the report identifies Wales as having the smallest decline among regions. These figures use the same broad past-12-month donation-or-sponsorship measure. They provide two regional comparisons, not a complete regional ranking. Source: UK Giving Report 2025
Charitable giving participation statistics: Causes and recipient types
A person who gives money may support more than one recipient type or cause. In the 2025 GivingPulse survey, among US money givers (n=2,083), 81% gave to registered charities, 63% gave to individuals and 60% gave to informal groups. These categories describe recipients of monetary gifts. Since respondents could give to multiple types, the percentages are not shares of a single, mutually exclusive total. Source: Resilient Generosity: US Giving, Trust, and Belonging in 2025
| Recipient type among US money givers | 2025 |
|---|---|
| Registered charities | 81% |
| Individuals | 63% |
| Informal groups | 60% |
The same survey asked money givers about cause areas. Rights was selected by 34%, Poverty by 32%, Health by 31%, Earth by 23%, Society by 20% and Crises by 17%. Cause areas may overlap, so these values show the proportion of money givers who reported giving to each area, not a division of all donations or total dollars. Source: Resilient Generosity: US Giving, Trust, and Belonging in 2025
UK donors were asked about causes using a different survey approach. In 2024, 43% of UK donors gave money to health charities. The figure concerns donors who had donated or sponsored in the past four weeks, aggregated across the year; the reported base was 4,275. It should not be directly ranked against the US cause percentages, which use a different country, survey and cause taxonomy. Source: UK Giving Report 2025
Charitable giving participation statistics across donation methods
Among UK respondents who had donated or sponsored in the past four weeks, 47% used direct debit or standing order in 2024. Other reported methods were cash at 36%, debit, credit or contactless card at 28%, PayPal or another payments service at 11%, text or SMS at 10%, Apple Pay, Google Pay or another digital wallet at 8%, and payroll giving at 2%. The aggregated 2024 base was 4,448. Respondents could use more than one method, so the figures do not sum to 100%. Source: UK Giving Report 2025
| Donation method used by UK respondents | 2024 |
|---|---|
| Direct debit or standing order | 47% |
| Cash | 36% |
| Debit, credit or contactless card | 28% |
| PayPal or another payments service | 11% |
| Text or SMS | 10% |
| Apple Pay, Google Pay or another digital wallet | 8% |
| Payroll giving | 2% |
The report separately estimates that around 8.2 million people in the UK reported donating by direct debit or standing order in any given month. That is a population estimate for regular giving, rather than the percentage of recent donors using the method. The report also puts the median donation at £28 over the past four weeks among respondents who donated during that period and reported an amount; the base was 4,275. Source: UK Giving Report 2025
The report notes that its donation-method and cause prompts changed in 2024. It says the new method likely improved recall and that total amounts are not directly comparable with previous years. That qualification matters when interpreting any apparent year-to-year shift in these measures. Source: UK Giving Report 2025
Charitable giving participation statistics: Appeals and responses
GivingPulse reports a high rate of money giving within a specific solicited group. Among US respondents who had been solicited and responded within the past seven days, 87.0% gave money in 2025; the corresponding 2024 result was 80.6%. The annual bases were 562 and 660 respondents. These percentages apply to people who were both solicited and responding in that short window, not to all US respondents. Source: Resilient Generosity: US Giving, Trust, and Belonging in 2025
A separate crisis-awareness measure asks about response among people aware of a named new crisis. Overall, 25.2% of aware US respondents responded in 2025. The quarterly figures shown were 21.4% in Q2 2025 and 31.6% in Q4 2025. These are response rates within the aware group, rather than participation rates across the whole population. Source: Resilient Generosity: US Giving, Trust, and Belonging in 2025
The UK report measures appeals over a longer window. Among UK donors in the past 12 months, 31% said they had responded to a charity appeal in the last 12 months, equivalent to 8.9 million people. The base was 6,791 donors. Within this donor group, 16% supported an international or overseas emergency appeal, 14% supported a local or community fundraising emergency appeal and 9% supported a national emergency appeal. These appeal categories are distinct responses from the overall 31% measure and are not a breakdown of all respondents. Source: UK Giving Report 2025
Charitable giving participation statistics in Canadian tax records
Canadian tax records provide counts and donation amounts for filers who reported eligible charitable donations. In 2023, 5,048,780 tax filers reported donations. Their claimed donations totaled $12,782,690 thousand, and the median donation was $390. The total is reported in thousands of current dollars; the median is in dollars. These administrative figures describe claimed tax donations, not every gift made in Canada. Source: Table 1: Number of tax filers reporting charitable donations, total value of donations and median amount, by age group and sex of tax filers, 2022 and 2023
Age measures show both the likelihood of reporting a donation within an age group and that group’s share of all donors or dollars. In 2023, 24.1% of Canadian tax filers aged 65 and older reported a donation, as did 21.0% of those aged 55–64. The 65+ group accounted for 35.0% of all donors and 50.0% of the total amount donated. Filers aged 55–64 represented 19.2% of all donors and 19.7% of the total donation amount. These are tax-filer statistics; they should not be read as survey participation rates among all people of the same ages. Source: The Daily — Charitable donors, 2023
The participation and giving measures in this article answer related but different questions. Weekly self-reports capture recent actions, annual surveys capture reported giving over broader windows, and tax records count claimed eligible donations. Geography, respondent age, donor-only bases and changing survey prompts also shape what each percentage represents. Keeping those definitions attached to the numbers makes cross-country comparisons more useful and avoids treating a survey result as a universal measure of charitable participation.
Sources
- Resilient Generosity: US Giving, Trust, and Belonging in 2025
- The Daily — Volunteering and charitable giving in Canada, 2018 to 2023
- UK Giving Report 2025
- Table 2: Number of tax filers reporting donations, total value of donations and median amount, Canada, provinces and territories, 2022 and 2023
- The Daily — Charitable donors, 2023
- Table 1: Number of tax filers reporting charitable donations, total value of donations and median amount, by age group and sex of tax filers, 2022 and 2023