Whole Whale Predicts: Giving will reach $4.17 Billion on Giving Tuesday, December 1st, 2026
Based on our analysis that incorporates an adjusted linear regression, trends in Google Search terms around “Giving Tuesday,” and national giving trends, Whole Whale predicts that $4.17 Billion will be raised on Giving Tuesday, December 1st, 2026. That is a 4% or ~$170 million increase over 2025’s record-breaking $4.0B, the smallest increase we have forecast since we started predicting in 2017.
Key headwinds:
- Federal funding & grant cuts — Trump’s administration has Doge-d (frozen or slashed) many federal grants for social services, refugee resettlement, arts, public safety, early childhood education, and other nonprofit-dependent sectors(AP News | The Chronicle of Philanthropy).
- Fewer nonprofits with capacity — It’s not just that there’s less funding; many nonprofits have been forced into leaner operations, reduced staffing, or even closure. That means less outreach capacity and lower ability to mobilize around Giving Tuesday. AP News+1
- Inflation and cost pressures — Even though interest rates have eased a bit, households and organizations alike are still stretched by cost-of-living increases, supply chain issues, etc.
Tailwinds still in place:
- Strong market performance giving donors more wealth‐effect room.
- Substantial funds sitting in donor-advised funds from the market.
- Low unemployment supporting giving behavior in many communities.
- Increasing use of new donation channels (crypto, digital platforms) expanding reach.
Google Trends of search for past 5 years of “GivingTuesday”
What happened in 2025?
“$4.0B was raised on Giving Tuesday 2025, +13%, within 0.25% of our $4.01B prediction. I am super embarrassed to have missed by this much and will work diligently to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”
– George Weiner, Whole Whale
Want more tips from the GivingTuesday experts? Check out our course with Chief Whaler George Weiner and GivingTuesday’s own Director of Digital Strategy Kathleen Murphy. You’ll learn best practices and get practical tactics for your campaign.
Giving Tuesday Facts and Statistics
Here is our breakdown of relevant stats and facts by year for Giving Tuesday, along with general giving trends and Giving Tuesday’s place in the larger Thanksgiving shopping headspace.
Who Knows About Giving Tuesday?
In a 2015 national survey by the John Templeton Foundation, 93% of consumers said they were familiar with Black Friday, while only 18% were familiar with Giving Tuesday. Sadly search behavior around these two keywords is even more disproportionate, according to Google Trends data that indicates search volume.
Historic Giving Tuesday Stats
We’ve been predicting since 2017, here is how we’ve done…
How our predictions have done, 2017–2026
Dollars raised on Giving Tuesday, with our forecast for each year.
| Year | Whole Whale prediction | Actual donation amount | % Increase | Total Participants |
| 2026 | $4.17 Billion | ?? | ||
| 2025 | $4.01 Billion | $4.0 Billion | 13% | 38.1 Million |
| 2024 | $3.5 Billion | $3.6 Billion | 16% | 36.1 Million |
| 2023 | $3.45 Billion | $3.12 Billion | 0.6% | 34 Million |
| 2022 | $3.2 Billion | $3.1 Billion | 15% | 37 Million |
| 2021 | $3.0 Billion | $2.7 Billion | 13% | 35 Million |
| 2020 | $605 Million* | $2.4 Billion | 22% | 34.8 Million |
| 2019 | $502 Million* | $1.97 Billion* | 393% | 24.7 Million |
| 2018 | $363 Million | $400 Million | 33% | N/A |
| 2017 | $280 Million | $300 Million | 79% | N/A |
*Whole Whale’s predictions did not include additional institution reporting before 2021. Total giving calculation began including large institutional gifts and not just individual donors after this point.
To forecast Giving Tuesday 2026, George (our chief whaler and nonprofit geek) balanced historical donation growth with current awareness signals:
- Historical Growth Trend
- Donation totals from 2015–2025 show steady post-2020 growth.
- A linear regression on this trend projects ~$4.59B raised in 2026 if momentum continues unchanged.
- Awareness Adjustment
- Early September Google Trends search interest for “GivingTuesday” keeps sliding: 25 (2022) → 22 (2023) → 13 (2024) → 11 (2025) → 8 (2026).
- That is a 27% drop year over year. We apply a third of it as downward pressure, since donations have kept growing while search fell.
- Cross-check
- The Philanthropic Pet Index (below) lands at $4.18B.
- Spot prediction
- Regression with the search adjustment: $4.17 billion.
Search interest is falling. Dollars are not.
Early-September search interest and dollars raised, both indexed to 2022 = 100.
Spot Prediction
Balancing the underlying growth trend against the steepest drop in search interest we have measured, my forecast for Giving Tuesday 2026 is $4.17 billion raised.
The Philanthropic Pet Index
Americans spent $158 billion on their pets in 2025, according to the American Pet Products Association. On Giving Tuesday they gave $4.0 billion. That works out to $2.53 given on Giving Tuesday for every $100 spent on pets all year, up from $2.03 in 2019.
| Year | Giving Tuesday | US pet spending | GT per $100 of pet spending |
| 2019 | $1.97B | $97.1B | $2.03 |
| 2020 | $2.40B | $108.9B | $2.20 |
| 2021 | $2.70B | $123.6B | $2.18 |
| 2022 | $3.10B | $136.8B | $2.27 |
| 2023 | $3.10B | $147.0B | $2.11 |
| 2024 | $3.60B | $150.6B | $2.39 |
| 2025 | $4.00B | $158.0B | $2.53 |
Add total US charitable giving to the picture and the story changes. Since 2019, Giving Tuesday has roughly doubled and pet spending is up 63%, while total giving is up 21%.
Pets, Giving Tuesday and total US giving since 2019
Each series indexed to 2019 = 100. Hover or tap for dollar values.
APPA projects $165 billion in pet spending for 2026. Hold the index at $2.53 and you get $4.18 billion for Giving Tuesday 2026, within $10 million of our model’s $4.17B.
Before you forward this to your board: the correlation is mostly spurious. Both lines go up every year, so they correlate strongly (r = 0.94) the same way almost any two growing numbers do. Compare the growth rates and the relationship disappears (r ≈ 0). In 2023 pet spending grew 7.5% while Giving Tuesday was flat; in 2024 pet spending grew 2.4% while Giving Tuesday jumped 16%. Total US giving is no better a match: in 2022 it fell 3.4% while pet spending rose 10.7%, and year to year the two move slightly in opposite directions (r = −0.38). So it is a cross-check, not a crystal ball. Still, we like a world where generosity keeps pace with the dog treats.
The year-to-year test the pet index fails
Growth in pet spending against growth in giving, 2020–2025. If pet spending predicted giving, the points would line up along a diagonal.
Giving Tuesday 2025 Stats
- Total amount donated: $4.0 Billion
- Participants: 38.1 million, a 6% increase over 2024
- Financial contributors: 19.1 million; volunteers: 11.1 million (+20%)
- Whole Whale predicted: $4.01 Billion
- Year-over-year change: 13% increase compared to 2024
Giving Tuesday 2024 Stats
- Total amount donated: $3.6 Billion
- Participants: 36.1 million participated during the 24-hour time frame
- Whole Whale predicted: $3.5 Billion
- Year-over-year change: 16% increase compared to 2023
Giving Tuesday 2023 Stats
- Total amount donated: $3.12 Billion
- Participants: 34 million participated during the 24-hour time frame.
- Whole Whale predicted $3.45 Billion
- Compared to 2022 this was a 0.6% increase in giving.
Giving Tuesday 2022 Stats
- Total amount donated: $3.1 Billion
- Participants: 37 million participated during the 24-hour time frame.
- Whole Whale predicted $3.2 Billion
- Compared to 2021 this was a 15% increase in giving.
- Total US Giving: $499 Billion down 3.4% YoY in current dollars, or 10.5% after adjusting for inflation
- Total charitable giving has fallen only three other times in the last 40 years in current dollars: in 1987, 2008 and 2009.
Giving Tuesday 2021 Stats
- Total Giving: $2.7 Billion
- Whole Whale predicted $3 Billion
- Compared to last year: 13% increase
- Participants: 35 million people participated in GivingTuesday 2021, 9% increase YoY
- Total US Giving: $484 Billion 4% increase
Giving Tuesday 2020 stats
- Total amount donated: $2.4 Billion
- Whole Whale prediction: $605 million - didn't include additional institution reporting.
- Compared to last year: +$430M or 22% over 2019
- Participants: 34.8 million people participated in GivingTuesday 2020, a 29% increase over 2019
- Total US Giving: $466 Billion
Giving Tuesday 2019 stats
- Total amount donated: $511 million* Later updated in 2020 to $1.97 billion
- Whole Whale prediction: $502 million
- Compared to last year: +$111 million ~ 28% over 2018's updated $400 million
- Participants: 24.7M
Giving Tuesday 2018 stats
- Total amount donated: $380 million, later updated to $400 million
- Whole Whale prediction: $363 million
- Compared to last year: +$100 million
- Total US donations: $427.7 billion (Giving USA 2019) which represents 2.05% of the 2018 US GDP ($20.89 trillion)
- Mean gift: $105 (Giving Tuesday Data Project)
Giving Tuesday 2017 stats
- Giving Tuesday gifts: 2.5 million
- Total amount donated: >$300 million
- Whole Whale prediction: $280 million
- Compared to last year: $168 million in 2016 meant a growth of 79% YoY
- Total US donations: $410 billion (Giving USA 2018) which represents 2.12% of the 2017 US GDP ($19.39 trillion)
- Average gift: $111 (Giving Tuesday Data Project)
- Social Mentions: 1,010,045 (Giving Tuesday Data Project)
Giving Tuesday 2016 stats
- Giving Tuesday gifts: 1.56 million
- Total amount donated: $168 million
- Compared to last year: $116.7 million in 2015 meant a growth of 44% YoY
- Total US donations: $379.89 billion (according to Giving USA), which represents 2.05% of the 2016 US GDP ($18,561.93 billion)
- Average gift: $107 (Blackbaud)
Giving Tuesday 2015 stats
- Giving Tuesday gifts: 698,961
- Total amount donated:$116.7 million
- Compared to last year: $47.5 million in 2014 meant a growth of 146% YoY
- Total US donations: $373.25 billion (according to Giving USA), which represents 2.08% of the 2015 US GDP ($17,968.2 billion)
- Average gift: $137 (Blackbaud)
Giving Tuesday 2014 stats
- Giving Tuesday partners: +20,000 (15,000 of which were NGOs)
- Total amount donated: $47.5 million
- Compared to last year: $27 million in 2013 meant a growth of 76% YoY (Case Foundation report)
- Total US donations: $358.38 billion (according to NP Trust), which represents 2.06% of the 2014 US GDP ($17,348.08 billion)
Giving Tuesday 2013 stats
- Giving Tuesday Partners: 8,500 (7,000 of which were NGOs)
- Average raised per partner: $3,857 per NGO
- Total amount donated: $27 million
- Compared to last year: $12 million in 2012 meant a growth of 125% YoY
- Total US donations: $335.17 billion, which represents 2.0% of the 2013 US GDP ($16,768 billion)
- Average gift: $143 (Blackbaud)
Giving Tuesday 2012 stats
- Giving Tuesday Partners: 2,500 NGOs
- Average raised per partner: $4,800
- Total amount donated: $12 million
- Total US donations: $228.93 billion, which represents 1.5% of the 2012 GDP ($15,553.8 billion perUS GDP trend)
- Average gift: $101 (Blackbaud)
