$70bn in cross-border philanthropic giving took place in 2020, global tracker shows

$70 billion in cross-border philanthropic giving took place at the height of COVID-19 global health crisis according to new data from the Global Philanthropy Tracker.

The Global Philanthropy Tracker from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy measures cross-border donations from individuals and organisations around the world.

It shows that the 47 countries included in the latest GPT contributed USD 70 billion in philanthropic giving in 2020 (the latest year for which data is available for most of the countries). This, it says, is roughly equivalent to the 73rd largest economy in the world, by 2020 GDP.

The 2023 GPT also examines how philanthropy enables and enhances efforts to address complex challenges – from poverty, food insecurity, health, and climate change to racial injustice, and inequality facing women and girls.

In addition, the report compares cross-border philanthropy to three other cross-border financial resource flows, including official development assistance (ODA), private capital investment, and remittances. Its data suggests that the $70 billion in philanthropy represents 8% of total cross-border financial resource flows.

When combined with ODA, remittances, and private capital investment, the total rises to $841 billion. The largest portion of this money comes from the high-income countries, which contributed about 95% of the total amount measured.

Africa was the most supported region among the countries with available data. This has been constant since 2018, with Asia also remaining a top recipient of cross-border philanthropy. Meanwhile, Europe has seen an increase in the number of countries sending cross-border donations to the continent.

Among the countries with data available on supported charitable causes, education and health were the most supported.

European data

In the report, the countries and data are grouped by income level as defined by the World Bank‘s measure of gross national income (GNI). Among the European countries tracked, the GPT shows that Germany’s philanthropic outflows (in inflation adjusted 2020 US dollars) was $3,228m, and its outflows as a share of gross national income was 0.0825%. For France, the figures were $1,070m and 0.0401%, for the UK $5.954mn and 0.2239%, for Italy $706m and 0.0371%, for Spain $385m and 0.0300%, and the Czech Republic $13m and 0.0056%.

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