When Generosity Gets Complicated: What 223 Americans Taught Us About the Future of Giving

“I’m not opposed to donating, but there’s just too many stories of it being mishandled, and frankly, I don’t trust it.”

The Hispanic man who shared this wasn’t speaking from a place of inexperience. He’d been a donor before, watched scandals unfold, and made a calculated decision to redirect his giving. His solution? Monthly membership to KCRW because he believes “media should be free, right?” His story reveals something profound happening beneath the surface of American generosity.

At Social Lens Research, we spend our days listening to people’s unfiltered truths about how they navigate their worlds. This spring, in partnership with Parkes Philanthropy, we connected with 223 diverse Americans to understand how they are thinking about charitable giving in 2025. While many nonprofit leaders sense these shifts occurring, our ethnographic approach reveals the emotional complexity and personal stories that drive the trends we’re all observing.

The Economic Squeeze Reaches Everyone

The most striking finding wasn’t that people are giving less, but who is giving less and why. Economic pressure is reshaping generosity across income levels in ways that challenge our typical donor categories. A Black male told us he doesn’t currently donate because “Even without children, the cost of living has become pretty overwhelming,” and “thinks that’s a real shame since many programs are being cut back.”

Even as financial constraints force difficult choices, some donors are maintaining their commitment through time rather than money.  An Asian female explains, “I do volunteer my time to different causes… But my donation pool has gotten smaller this year because the cost of goods has gone up. I wish I could give more, but unfortunately, everything is costing a lot more.”

Trust in the Time of Skepticism

That wariness about mishandled donations isn’t an outlier.  It’s reshaping the philanthropic landscape.  The participants aren’t just changing how much they give. They’re fundamentally rethinking where and why they give. Traditional institutional charity is losing ground to what we’re calling “community over charity.” People want direct lines of sight to impact. They’re gravitating toward hyperlocal organizations, identity-based groups, and grassroots efforts where they can witness change firsthand.

This represents a demand for authenticity in an era of performative gestures. People are doing their homework, researching leadership diversity, examining overhead costs, and demanding that organizations demonstrate genuine commitment to equity rather than just talking about it.

These contradictions reveal how complex giving has become. There’s a deeply personal calculus happening—one that weighs economic survival against moral obligation, financial capacity against time availability, and the desire to reciprocate kindness against immediate constraints. The boundaries between what we owe ourselves, what we owe our communities, and what we owe those who’ve helped us are blurring in ways that traditional fundraising approaches struggle to address.

As someone who has spent years studying how people make meaning from their experiences, I find these tensions particularly revealing. They show us that generosity today carries emotional weight and moral complexity that surveys and donor databases simply cannot capture.

What This Means for Your Organization

The implications extend far beyond adjusting donation ask amounts. Organizations that thrive in this new landscape will meet people where they are economically, emotionally, and ethically. This means creating multiple pathways for engagement that honor time and skills as much as dollars. This means radical transparency about operations and authentic representation in leadership. This means moving from transactional fundraising toward approaches that center connection, community, and shared ownership of change.

An Invitation to Evolve

This moment asks nonprofit leaders to consider: Are we prepared to meet people in this new reality? Can we move beyond charity models that maintain inequality toward solidarity approaches that build justice?

From my vantage point as a researcher, what strikes me most is how people are already writing the future of generosity through their daily choices and innovations. The question becomes whether organizations will join this evolution or be left behind by it.

The full “Redefining Generosity” report reveals specific strategies for reimagining supporter engagement, building authentic trust, supporting ecosystem approaches, and redistributing power. These recommendations emerge directly from what people are already telling us they need.

The complete “Redefining Generosity: Nonprofit Report 2025” offers detailed insights, participant quotes, and actionable strategies for nonprofits navigating this evolving landscape. It can be accessed here: https://parkesphilanthropy.com/redefining-generosity/