11 Trends in Philanthropy for 2025: Anticipate and Embrace What’s Next

It’s remarkable to think that five years have passed since the world first went into lockdown. Five years since the COVID-19 pandemic reshaped our daily lives and presented us with challenges unlike any we’d faced before. Half a decade later, we’re left to reflect on how much has truly changed — and what remains the same.

In 2020, philanthropy responded swiftly to the crisis, adopting practices nonprofits had long championed: streamlined reporting, simplified applications, and flexible funding that prioritized general operating support. These shifts brought hope for lasting transformation. Yet today, many funders have returned to pre-pandemic norms, leaving us to wonder if those changes were ever meant to last.

Movements like Trust-Based Philanthropy and efforts to advance racial equity seemed to make extraordinary gains, but they now face renewed challenges and critiques. And while foundation grantmaking has increased, overall charitable giving — once adjusted for inflation — has declined, even as that inflation continues to stretch nonprofit, government, and household budgets to their limits.

One constant remains: the growing demand for the essential services and resources nonprofits provide to help communities thrive. Five years on, the call to support and sustain these organizations is louder than ever.

This year’s 11 Trends in Philanthropy report from the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy explores many of these issues and others — attempting to look beyond the pendulum swing and into a future where innovations in philanthropy and community-building may yet achieve the transformations we all hope to see.

Click here to read the full report.

Source: Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy