End-of-Year Giving Insights

The end of the year brings about a season filled with both holiday and charitable spirit. In addition to containing dozens of holidays, November and December are a peak period for charitable giving. At CAF America, we wanted to understand what factors lead people to open not only their hearts, but also their wallets in support of a cause. Here are some of the key findings from our nationally representative survey of 1,028 U.S. adults:

• How much do people give during the holiday season? A majority of U.S. adults plan to donate by the end of 2024, with a high concentration of giving focused within the last two months of the year. In fact, about a fifth of all donors report giving exclusively during this period. Read more here.
• Why do people give during the holidays? End-of-year giving is driven by a multitude of factors, such as gratitude, tradition, convenience, and the warm glow that comes from giving. However, nearly all end-of-year American donors report being motivated to give in November and December when they feel a strong connection to a cause. Read more here.
• What causes do donors care about most in 2024? Health and poverty causes top the list of causes donors say they will have contributed to by the end of this year. While American donors are primarily focused on domestic causes, about a tenth of donors are turning their sights abroad and doing so quite generously. Read more here.

Methodology

This report is based on 1,028 survey responses from U.S. adults. This data was collected by Centiment on behalf of CAF America between October 23 and October 31, 2024, using Centiment’s online panel. The sample is nationally representative of U.S. adults and weighted to Census demographic information for age, gender, age by gender, income, and region (margin of error is ±5%).

Median respondent: 47-year-old with a household income of $75,000-99,999 and $50,000-74,999 in investable assets (not including homeownership).