Giving USA—the most trusted and long-standing source of charitable giving data in the U.S.—has just released its Annual Report on Philanthropy, which paints a picture that every church leader needs to see.
There is reason to celebrate: Total charitable giving rose from $557 billion to $592.5 billion from 2023 to 2024, driven by robust giving from individuals. However, beneath these encouraging headlines lies a more complex reality—one with significant implications for the future of church funding and generosity.
In this post, we'll equip you with the wisdom to understand the trends, the discernment to recognize what they mean for your context, and the actionable steps you can take right now to lead your church toward a fully funded ministry plan and flourishing culture of generosity.
Total charitable giving grew significantly in 2024, reaching $592.5 billion—a clear sign that generosity remains strong across the U.S.
Individual giving rose by 5.1% after adjusting for inflation, underscoring the continued power of personal conviction and connection in fueling generosity. Yet not all sources of giving followed the same upward trend. Foundation giving dipped slightly by 0.5%, and bequests fell by 4.4%, signaling potential shifts in long-term planning and legacy giving. Meanwhile, corporate giving saw a 6% increase, reflecting a small, but growing role for business leaders in shaping the charitable landscape.
Wise leadership begins with clarity, which means understanding not just how much giving is happening, but also where it's coming from. As momentum grows in individual and corporate giving, it slips in foundations and bequests. Churches and faith-based nonprofits must adjust their strategies accordingly, engaging givers with purpose to build a more sustainable and fully funded future.
Inflation Adjusted Changes In Sources of Giving
Giving to religion increased by 1.9 percent in 2024 to $146.54 billion, but purchasing power still declined by one percent when inflation is taken into account.
Churches saw a 1.9% increase in giving in 2024, totaling $146.54 billion. That's encouraging news. But when you factor in inflation, that increase translates to a 1% decline in real purchasing power. In other words, your church may have received more dollars, but those dollars do not stretch as far in ministry as they did the year before.
This is a critical moment for church leaders. It's essential to measure both giving and spending power in inflation-adjusted dollars, because that's what truly reflects your ministry's capacity. It's easy to celebrate an increase in giving, but if inflation outpaces it, you may be losing ground. For example, individual household giving rose by 10.4% from 2022 to 2024, but once adjusted for inflation, the real growth was only 3%.
Similarly, giving to religion increased by 2.8% over the last two years, but inflation erased those gains, resulting in a 4.1% decline in actual purchasing power. That means churches in 2024 could only fund 96.9% of what they could in 2022. There is good news: The rate of decline is slowing, from a 3.1% drop in 2023 to just 1% in 2024. It's right to celebrate generosity, but as ministry demands grow, we must also ensure the resources are keeping pace.
It provides a more accurate picture of what you can accomplish with the funds received, helping people see the actual impact of their giving.
Horizons Next Level Generosity Discovery Assessments in churches of all sizes have recorded two other concerning trends:
Sample Rolling 12-Month Cycle
Sample Giving Band Analysis
Sample New and Lapsed Giver Analysis
Sample Giving Illustration
To gain deeper insight into your church's financial health, track both the percentage of givers and the percentage of total giving from each age group. This dual-metric approach helps leaders:
Giving By Age Range
Religious giving reached $146.54 billion in 2024 (23% of total charitable giving), representing a dramatic decline from 63% of total giving in 1983. Overall charitable giving increased by 6.3%, while religious giving rose by only 1.9%. Four of the other eight giving sectors reached all-time highs as givers shifted away from their local churches to other nonprofits.
Religion's Share of Charitable Giving.
Increasingly, churches do not hold the top spot in people's giving priorities. Today's churchgoers increasingly view their church as one option among many worthy causes competing for their generosity.
Churches must now clearly communicate two essential messages:
To demonstrate this, Churches must boldly share the story of how they transform lives and communities through the gospel. People are still giving generously, but they're choosing organizations that:
Giving isn't just about meeting budgets—it's about inviting people to participate in God's mission. When we frame generosity this way, we move its transformative power in the hearts and lives of God’s people.
There are almost 2 million charitable organizations (including other churches) that the people of God’s church can support. The number of nonprofits seeking support from your givers continues to grow, increasing from 1,052,495 in 2013 to over 1.5 million in 2024. Churches have a unique advantage over these charities—they build community with most of their givers through meaningful interactions in worship, small groups, Sunday school, serving opportunities, and more. Church leaders must see each gathering as an opportunity to connect generosity with spiritual growth. People will discover the joy of generosity when we clearly communicate what God is doing in our churches and invite them to pray about what God is asking them to do. This is not a moment for cloudy communication. Demonstrate how their giving makes a difference, link their generosity to spiritual growth, and challenge them to take a meaningful next step in faith.
Individual giving as a share of disposable personal income (after-tax income) has remained remarkably stable over the past forty years, averaging around 2%, despite fluctuations in the economy, never rising above 2.3% or dropping below 1.8%.
The same is true when comparing giving to gross domestic product (the value of all goods and services created in the U.S.). It too has remained at a nearly consistent 2% for over forty years, never falling below 1.6% or rising above 2.1%.
As church leaders, we must understand that we are not facing a giving problem, but a problem with giving to the church.
Far too often, fear of economic uncertainty paralyzes us. This scarcity mindset causes us to pull back from the very movements of God's Spirit, calling the church to follow Jesus in chaotic times. The Bible encourages people in times of uncertainty over 100 times: "Do not be Afraid."
The truth is clear: whether in good times or bad, giving remains remarkably steady. Too often, leaders lose sight of this fact and God's encouragement not to fear but to be courageous. If we allow fear and anxiety to hold us back from courageously embracing our mission, those who call our church home won't stop giving—they will simply direct their generosity elsewhere, toward something that challenges them to rise and be part of something vibrant and life-changing. It is time for the church to base its communication on a message that invites people to give not out of guilt or fear, but because they see their generosity fueling a mission that is worth their whole heart and life.
After helping churches raise over $10 billion in ministry funding, Horizons Stewardship has discovered that your most powerful generosity tool isn't a new program or strategy—it's discipleship. When churches focus on Jesus's Great Commission mandate to make disciples, generosity naturally follows.
Our most important work as leaders is to continually improve how we engage people in making disciples who go into the world and make more disciples by living out the greatest commandments to love God and love our neighbors.
Your discipleship pathway is your church's process for growing and sending out disciples. The most common elements include well-designed strategies to boost engagement in worship, small groups for spiritual growth and community, serving, and giving. It can be summarized as succinctly as 4G Living: Gather, Grow, Go, and Give. What you call your discipleship pathway is less important than the effectiveness of your engagement strategies. Your mission statement explains why you exist. Your discipleship pathway and the supporting strategy at each stage describe how you prepare those you lead to partner with God in making your mission and expectations a reality.
At Horizons, our mission is to help churches and faith-based nonprofits grow disciples and fund their ministries. Generosity largely depends on how effectively your church develops disciples. If you want to attract more people and financial resources, the fastest way is to grow disciples who are inspired to make a difference — a goal that should align with your mission statement and Jesus' words in Matthew 28.
According to a study conducted at one of the largest multi-site churches in the U.S., regular worship attendees (1-2 times per month) who participated in small groups focused on Bible study and spiritual formation, and who also built communities that cared for and encouraged each other, contributed 3.5 times more to the church than those who only attended worship once or twice a month. Those actively serving in hands-on church ministries also donated about three and a half times more than infrequent worshipers. Growing giving requires understanding the importance of discipleship and serving within relationships. Discipleship emphasis should also guide staffing decisions. Horizons reports that most churches facing financial struggles tend to under-resource spiritual formation, small group communities, and Sunday schools. Simply put, the more effectively we grow disciples who actively seek to transform the world, the more human and financial resources our ministry will have. Conversely, reducing resources in these areas will speed up the decline of both human and financial resources.
Data-driven dashboards are powerful tools designed to help church leaders understand and strengthen their giving base. They provide a precise, visual analysis of giving patterns by household, highlighting trends in frequency, consistency, and total contributions over time. By segmenting givers into meaningful categories (such as first-time givers, consistent givers, and lapsed givers), the dashboard equips churches to make data-informed decisions, personalize engagement strategies, and identify both opportunities for growth and areas of concern. Ultimately, it moves giving conversations from guesswork to clarity, empowering leaders with confidence and care.
In our work with thousands of churches that reach out to us for help growing giving, most don't have a clear Vision (a time-bound and measurable picture of their preferred future) or a strategic roadmap for reaching the goals described in their Vision, which is a root case behind our best givers shifting giving away from the church to faith-based or secular non-profits. It's challenging to answer the question, "Why increase giving through your church," without a clear picture of where you are going and a strategy to get there.
The good news is that we have developed a process for Vision Clarity and Strategic Ministry Planning that seamlessly integrates with the year-round ministry funding plans and strategies that form the foundation of the Next Level Generosity process. Learn more at NextLevelGenerosity.com.
Horizons' free online resource library, Giving365.com, offers access to valuable resources. Signing up for free resources in Giving365 also subscribes you to a list of over 40,000 church leaders who receive our twice-a-month newsletter called The Generosity Advantage. Be sure to download the recently released Annual Giving Plan Essentials resource, which outlines key considerations for leaders seeking to increase giving throughout the year. For a quick glimpse into how we get started, visit NextLevelGenerosity.com.
Horizons provides comprehensive quantitative and qualitative diagnostic options to help you assess the health of your church's giving culture and to create a Strategic Ministry Plan to bring your vision into reality.
We'd love to discuss how these tools can help you identify troubling trends and how they might impact your ability to grow disciples and fund your ministry needs through strategic planning, church health assessments, and guided programs for annual, capital, special, and planned giving. If you'd like to schedule a brief exploratory conversation, click here.