Credit: Gallup/ Cropped)
A new Gallup poll finds global philanthropy in significant decline. While a surge in charitable activities was noted in 2021 and 2023, last year, the numbers of people donating, volunteering and helping strangers were all down.
In 2024, more than half of adults surveyed worldwide (56%) said they helped a stranger in the last six months, a decrease of six percentage points compared with the previous year. Financial donations and volunteerism decreased by 33% and 26%, both down four percentage points, respectively.
Though all three metrics show a decline, generous acts of kindness continue. “Giving levels remain higher than they have been at most points since 2006,” the analytics and advisory company said.
The reasons for this negative downturn are speculative but include “philanthropic fatigue” and a change in priorities for some respondents, given reports of economic uncertainty. Those surveyed expressed difficulty simply “getting by on present income,” which resulted in them making fewer monetary donations last year. Further, Gallup found that no matter their earnings, respondents decreased their giving in 2024.
“The global landscape of giving shifted in 2024. All forms of charitable giving experienced significant declines across the world,” Julie Ray, Content Senior Consultant and Managing Editor for World News at Gallup, wrote. “Despite these recent declines, overall levels of charitable giving remain higher today than they were a decade ago, indicating a long-term trend of increased global generosity.”
She continued, “As the world navigates these changes, understanding and addressing the underlying causes of the shifts—including fatigue with charitable giving—will be crucial in promoting a more consistent and widespread culture of giving.”
To learn more about how the Gallup World Poll works, click here. For the survey’s methodology, click here, and to read the full report, click here.
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Director of The Raceless Gospel Initiative, an associate editor, host of the Good Faith Media podcast, “The Raceless Gospel” and author of Take Me to the Water: The Raceless Gospel as Baptismal Pedagogy for a Desegregated Church.
