The Evolving Landscape of Philanthropy

11 Trends in Philanthropy for 2026 report cover

This article was first published in our 11 Trends in Philanthropy for 2026 report. Explore the full report here.

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In 2020, Moody and Martin observed: “Go to any philanthropy conference today and one of the keynote speakers is likely to be the author of a book about ‘the elite charade of changing the world’ (Giridharadas, 2019), ‘why philanthropy is failing democracy’ (Reich, 2018), or the need to ‘decolonize’ and ‘heal’ (Villanueva, 2018) a philanthropic sector gone awry.” This still feels true today.

Conversely, and more hopefully, leaders like Dimple Abichandani are calling for a “new era of philanthropy” (2025) that reimagines how wealth can be mobilized for justice — an era grounded in shared power, transparency, and participation. This year, we trace how successive trends have captured the evolution of that vision, mapping an emerging landscape defined by collective practices, digital tools, and a search for connection that is reshaping philanthropy.

Collective Practices: Strength in Numbers

Early Trends reports from the Johnson Center captured the stirrings of this transformation. In the first edition, Jason Franklin described a worldwide movement in which small contributions could be aggregated into significant collective impact (2017a, 2017b). The following year, he explored how giving circles build both community and capacity by pooling resources and decision-making (Franklin, 2018).

By 2025, two essays confirmed that what began as a niche practice had become a durable feature of the philanthropic landscape (Layton; Couturier & Martin). In the wider field of philanthropy, this story is beautifully rendered by two untiring advocates for giving circles, Sara Lomelin’s 2022 TED Talk, “Your Invitation to Disrupt Philanthropy,” and Hali Lee’s 2025 book, The Big We: How Giving Circles Unlock Generosity, Strengthen Community, and Make Change.

Research shows that collective giving challenges traditional hierarchies by dispersing decision-making power (Loson-Ceballos & Layton, 2024). It builds social capital as people deliberate and act together. As Layton argued in 2021, these spaces deepen belonging and civic engagement.

“[C]ollective giving challenges traditional hierarchies by dispersing decision-making power. It builds social capital as people deliberate and act together.”

These dynamics are especially visible across communities of color, where collective traditions long predate current models. Two Trends essays in particular have sought to highlight this work — “Donors of Color Are Mobilizing for Their Communities” (Spicer, 2022) and “AAPI Communities Are Leading an Upswell in Philanthropy” (Abalo & Sharp Eizinger, 2024) — illustrating how culturally rooted philanthropy is expanding who participates and what gets resourced. Taken together, these developments suggest that collective philanthropy is now a mainstream force in the evolving landscape of generosity.

Digital Tools: Promise and Peril

Technology has fueled how new practices of generosity emerge. As The Generosity Commission (2024) noted, “the proliferation of different modes of giving” will likely be a permanent feature of the U.S. landscape.

Early optimism surrounded crowdfunding as a democratizing force. Yet, as nonprofits became increasingly dependent on corporate platforms, vulnerability followed. In the 2022 Trends report, Emily Brenner and Karen Hoekstra revealed how sudden algorithmic changes could disrupt outreach and fundraising.

Further, in 2024, Kallie Bauer explored how emerging AI tools are reshaping donor engagement and decision-making, potentially amplifying both reach and inequity. That same year, Brenner and Martin showed how social media personalities mobilize followers around causes at the intersection of authenticity and visibility. The related blog post, “TikTok: A New Frontier for Philanthropy?” (Hoekstra, 2024) examined short-form video’s potential to engage younger donors while raising questions about sustainability.

But digital participation can come at a cost: the infrastructure that enables it is often privately owned, driven by algorithms that prioritize engagement — and profit — over all else. This creates tension between philanthropy’s aspiration to create public good and social media’s tendency to amplify polarization and misinformation. As the Center for Humane Technology warned on its podcast (2023), such systems are designed to capture attention, not to cultivate connection. The paradox is that the very tools with the potential to foster generosity are too often powered by forces that provoke division and isolation.

The Search for Connection: Reweaving the Social Fabric

A critical challenge of our time is the rise of social isolation, identified by the U.S. Surgeon General as a public-health crisis with profound consequences for individual and community well-being (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2023). At the same time, the Pew Research Center reports that only about one-third of Americans now say most people can be trusted — a steep decline from previous decades (Silver et al., 2025). This erosion of trust weakens both civic life and the everyday generosity that depends on strong social bonds.

Dietz (2024) demonstrates that social connectedness and associational life enhance volunteering and giving, indicating that rebuilding community ties is central to revitalizing philanthropy. However, younger generations are forming connections differently. Chatterjee and Ochieng (2025) find that many now build community digitally — through TikTok, YouTube, and GoFundMe — rather than through traditional civic associations. These digital spaces enable new forms of participation and mutual support, even as they raise questions about whether online networks can cultivate the depth of connections that Dietz identifies as essential for sustaining generosity.

The Generosity Commission (2024) documents a long-term decline in everyday giving but also identifies promising pathways for renewal. These include youth engagement and collective giving, where community foundations, as place-based philanthropic institutions, can serve as catalysts by embracing these practices. Together, these findings point to a common imperative: rebuilding connection and trust is both a social and a civic project.

The 2021 Trend, “The Nonprofit Sector Has a Unique Opportunity to Build Public Trust” (Martin), and the 2025 Trend, “The Movement to Fund Democracy Is Learning Important Lessons” (Dale), extend this insight, showing that restoring faith in democratic institutions requires reweaving the same connective tissue that binds communities to one another. Philanthropy’s role, therefore, is not only to fund programs but to support the practices and infrastructure that make democracy itself more resilient.

The Open Question

These interconnected trends and more recent research document that philanthropy is shifting from institutional to participatory, from elite to networked. Digital tools can expand access; collective practices can redistribute power; and in our search for connection, we seek to reweave our social fabric.

The future of philanthropy will be shaped by Gen Z’s evolving relationship to institutions — and by how they practice generosity across the five Ts: time, talent, treasure, testimony, and ties (Laramore, 2024). Even amid financial strain, Gen Z engages in philanthropy through digital platforms and peer networks while seeking community.

The question is not whether philanthropy is changing, but whether our institutions can evolve to embrace these new forms of generosity and to lift up the next generation as philanthropists. Much is riding on the answer.

REFERENCES

Abalo, T., & Sharp Eizinger, M. (2024, January 17). AAPI communities are leading an upswell in philanthropy. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2024. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/aapi-communities-are-leading-an-upswell-in-philanthropy/

Abichandani, D. (2025). A new era of philanthropy: Ten practices to transform wealth into a more just and sustainable future. North Atlantic Books.

Bauer, K. (2024, January 17). The artificial intelligence revolution arrives in philanthropy. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2024. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/the-artificial-intelligence-revolution-arrives-in-philanthropy/

Brenner, E., & Hoekstra, K. (2022, January 11). Nonprofits are questioning their use of Facebook. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2022. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/nonprofits-are-questioning-their-use-of-facebook/

Brenner, E., & Martin, T. (2024, January 17). Influencer philanthropy is on the rise, but the platform matters. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2024. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/influencer-philanthropy-is-on-the-rise-but-the-platform-matters/

Center for Humane Technology. (2023, March 24). The A.I. dilemma [Audio podcast]. Your Undivided Attention. https://www.humanetech.com/podcast/the-ai-dilemma

Chatterjee, K., & Ochieng, A. (2025). The new face of philanthropy: How Gen Z is bypassing traditional systems. APCO Worldwide. https://apcoworldwide.com/blog/the-new-face-of-philanthropy-how-gen-z-is-bypassing-traditional-systems/

Couturier, J., & Martin, T. (2025, January 15). With unique approaches and millions raised, giving days grow up. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2025. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/with-unique-approaches-and-millions-raised-giving-days-grow-up/

Dale, E. (2025, January 15). The movement to fund democracy is learning important lessons. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2025. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/the-movement-to-fund-democracy-is-learning-important-lessons/

Dietz, N. (2024). Social connectedness and generosity: A look at how associational life and social connections influence volunteering and giving. Do Good Institute, University of Maryland. https://knowledge.unv.org/system/files/2024-12/FINAL_SocialConnectednessandGenerosity_2024.pdf

Franklin, J. (2017a). The growth of global community philanthropy. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2017. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/the-growth-of-global-community-philanthropy/

Franklin, J. (2017b). The growth of crowdfunding & collective giving. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2017. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/the-growth-of-crowdfunding-collective-giving/

Franklin, J. (2018, January 15). Giving more by giving together. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2018. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/giving-more-by-giving-together/

Giridharadas, A. (2019). Winners take all: The elite charade of changing the world. Alfred A. Knopf.

Hoekstra, K. (2024, October 31). TikTok: A new frontier for philanthropy? Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/tiktok-a-new-frontier-for-philanthropy/

Laramore, A. (2024, January 17). Financial stress and philanthropic influence: The precarious promise of Generation Z. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2024. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/financial-stress-and-philanthropic-influence-the-precarious-promise-of-generation-z/

Layton, M. (2021, April 20). Giving circles: A way forward for democratizing philanthropy. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/giving-circles-a-way-forward-for-democratizing-philanthropy/

Layton, M. (2025, January 15). Collective giving projected to double in the next five years. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2025. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/collective-giving-projected-to-double-in-the-next-five-years/

Loson-Ceballos, A., & Layton, M. D. (2024). In abundance: An analysis of the thriving landscape of collective giving in the U.S. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University; Philanthropy Together. https://johnsoncenter.org/resource/report-in-abundance-an-analysis-of-the-thriving-landscape-of-collective-giving-in-the-u-s/

Lee, H. (2025). The big we: How giving circles unlock generosity, strengthen community, and make change. (1st ed.). Sweet July Books.

Lomelin, S. (2022). Your invitation to disrupt philanthropy [Video]. TED. https://youtu.be/ddJvVf1eqwM?si=LKCQlPJJW5oOy21M

Martin, T. (2021, January 19). The nonprofit sector has a unique opportunity to build public trust. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2021. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/the-nonprofit-sector-has-a-unique-opportunity-to-build-public-trust/

Moody, M., & Martin, T. (2020, January 15). Increasing critiques of (big) philanthropy. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2020.Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/increasing-critiques-of-big-philanthropy/

Reich, R. (2018). Just giving: Why philanthropy is failing democracy and how it can do better. Princeton University Press.

Silver, L., Keeter, S., Kramer, S., Lippert, J., Hernandez Ramones, S., Cooperman, A., Baronavski, C., Webster, B., Nadeem, R., & Chavda, J. (2025). Americans’ trust in one another. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/2025/05/08/americans-trust-in-one-another/

Spicer, T. (2022, January 18). Donors of color are mobilizing for their communities — often at the forefront of emerging trends. 11 trends in philanthropy for 2022. Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University. https://johnsoncenter.org/blog/donors-of-color-are-mobilizing-for-their-communities-often-at-the-forefront-of-emerging-trends/

The Generosity Commission. (2024). Everyday actions, extraordinary potential: The power of giving and volunteering. https://www.thegenerositycommission.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/DIGITAL_TGC_FullReport_092424.pdf

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2023). Our epidemic of loneliness and isolation: The U.S. Surgeon General’s advisory on the healing effects of social connection and community. Office of the U.S. Surgeon General. https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf

Villanueva, E. (2018). Decolonizing wealth: Indigenous wisdom to heal divides and restore balance (1st ed.). Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

The Evolving Landscape of Philanthropy: Collective Practices, Digital Tools, and the Search for Connection

Collective Practices: Strength in Numbers

Digital Tools: Promise and Peril

The Search for Connection: Reweaving the Social Fabric

The Open Question

Collective Giving Projected to Double in the Next Five Years

Expanding the Definitions of Philanthropy and Philanthropist

Financial Stress and Philanthropic Influence: The Precarious Promise of Generation Z

REFERENCES