This is according to the Nordic Donor Report 2026, conducted on behalf of EFA members ISOBRO (Denmark), Giva Sverige (Sweden), Fundraising Norway and VaLa (Finland), with around 1,000 adults surveyed in each country.

Seven in 10 (70%) Norwegians, up from 66% last year, said they donate regularly or occasionally to charities. In Denmark, which was the most generous nation in the 2024 and 2025 surveys, the figure fell slightly from 67% to 66%.

Sweden also overtook Denmark, moving from 64% to 69%, while Finland’s figure dropped from 50% to 48%.

Between 2024 and 2025, the donor share had risen in all four countries, by at least six percentage points.

The report notes that the difference between men’s and women’s giving rates has been narrowing over time, and that giving is also increasing across most age groups. The exceptions are in Sweden and Norway, where giving by 18-29-year-olds has been flat across the last three years — something the report says “may need specific attention.”

25% more engagement

Across the four countries, overall engagement in charitable activities has grown by 25% between 2024 and 2026. There is a positive trend around activities such as donating clothes or goods — the most common charitable activity in the region — entering raffles, and making one-off or regular donations.

Volunteering has remained essentially stable, moving from 9% in 2024 to 10% in 2026, while remembering a charity in a will has dropped from 2% to 1%.

Humanitarian aid remained the most supported cause across the Nordics, cited by 27% of respondents, with support for disadvantaged people in their home country (24%) and people in need in developing countries (18%) the next most prominent.

There is, however, notable variation within the region. Helping disadvantaged people in the home country is Finland’s most supported cause (35%), ahead of humanitarian aid (23%) — the reverse of the pattern in Norway, Sweden and Denmark, where humanitarian aid consistently leads. Finland is also the only country where support for religious organizations has not declined over the three years of the survey.

The Finland gap

The report flags a decline in monthly giving in Finland, with the proportion of monthly donors dropping from 18% in 2025 to 10% in 2026, compared to roughly one in three donors in the other three countries.

As was the case following the 2025 report, VaLa points to tax policy as a structural factor in the gap, noting its own research findings that more than 30% of Finns say they would give more if donations were tax-deductible, rising to around 45% among younger age groups.

Picture by Lara Jameson via Pexels

The survey of 1,043 adults finds that 56% gave money in the last six months, meaning the figure has returned to 2020 levels, although it remains short of the 63% in 2016, the survey’s first year.

The number giving monthly has also returned to pre-pandemic levels, at 29% – but remains lower than 2016’s 32%. Both monthly and general giving has increased for both men and women, and across all age groups.

Earlier this year, Giva Sverige said that two in three Swedish nonprofits expected their fundraising income to increase during 2026.

A more polarised landscape

Overall sentiment towards nonprofits remains strong – 79% of Swedes hold a positive view of the sector, a figure which was 77% in 2016 and has only changed marginally in the years since. The figure is even higher (88%) for those aged 18-34.

However, the report notes a growing divide between voters who supported the centre-right and nationalist parties who make up the Tidö coalition, which has governed Sweden since 2022, and opposition voters.

While 91% of opposition voters have a positive view of the sector, this drops to 66% among Tidö supporters – and the gap has grown since 2025, when the respective figures were 86% and 71%.

Charlotte Rydh, secretary general of Giva Sverige, writes in the report:

“Differences between voters of the different political blocs show that civil society operates in a more polarised public sphere — a reality that organizations must navigate. We also see a clear shift in what Swedes want civil society to do: from being seen as actors that solve societal challenges and strengthen democracy, to being valued for meeting places and community.”

Rydh’s point about shifting expectations reflects another point in the data.

The proportion of Swedes who say uniting people and creating meeting places and is an important future role for civil society is 32% – more than double the figure of 15% in 2021. The number saying it should help people to have meaningful leisure time has gone from 14% to 18%.

Meanwhile, the proportion saying that nonprofits must support the most vulnerable elsewhere in the world has dropped from 42% to 30%, and those who say it should solve difficult social challenges from 24% to 15%.

Reasons for not giving

The report also looked at the reasons why people gave, and why they did not.

For those who had given in the past six months, there were four main reasons:

• The cause matches my values: 43%
• I have been giving to this organization for a long time: 39%
• I wanted to help make a difference for the recipient of the gift: 38%
• I felt the need was clear/great: 38%

Among Swedes who had not donated in the previous six months, 36% said they couldn’t afford it, and 26% said they thought money wasn’t being spent properly. Nearly a fifth (17%) said they hadn’t been asked.

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Philanthropy in Europe: Mapping Research and Data on Donations by Households, Bequests, Foundations, Corporations and Charity Lotteries looks at contributions from households, bequests, corporations, foundations, and charity lotteries to provide a comparative overview of philanthropic giving across Europe. An executive summary can be downloaded here, and the full report accessed via this link.

The study findings are based on the best available data from 2022 on philanthropic giving in 23 European countries. Breaking the overall figure of €104.5 billion down, the study reveals that:

• Household giving is the largest and best-documented source of philanthropy, totalling €52 billion across Europe
• Corporate giving amounts to €21.5 billion, though the true figure is likely considerably higher
• Foundation giving reaches €20.6 billion, with Germany and Switzerland home to the most active foundation sectors
• Bequests contribute €8.4 billion and remain significantly under-measured across most of Europe
• Charity lotteries generate €1.9 billion, concentrated in a small number of countries including the Netherlands, Germany, and Sweden

The study is edited by Barry Hoolwerf and Johan Vamstad and draws on the expertise of nearly 50 researchers. It maps how philanthropic resources are directed toward a wide range of causes, including health, social services, education, culture, environment, international aid, and community initiatives.

It also provides a systematic assessment of data quality across Europe, stating that the €104.5 billion estimate is a lower-bound figure, with significant amounts of giving remaining invisible due to data gaps and inconsistencies. This, ERNOP says, highlights how differences between countries often reflect differences in data infrastructure as much as differences in generosity.

Barry Hoolwerf, director of ERNOP and co-editor of Philanthropy in Europe said:

“Building on our 2017 Giving in Europe study, this publication again maps the scale of philanthropic giving across Europe. What emerges is a picture of considerable variety and resilience in how philanthropy is expressed across countries. At the same time, our ability to understand it remains uneven — and in some cases appears to be weakening. The gaps in our data are not a footnote; they are a central finding. Strengthening Europe’s philanthropic data infrastructure is not a technical ambition — it is a prerequisite for informed public debate, effective policy, and the long-term development of the sector.”

ERNOP’s 2017 Giving in Europe study estimated philanthropic giving at €87.5 billion in 2013. Although ERNOP states that differences in data availability and methodology limit direct comparison, it notes that the updated figures underline both the scale of philanthropy in Europe and the importance of continued investment in data infrastructure.

Main image: Unsplash Community for Unsplash+

The publication also includes 17 recommendations for the Scottish Government, its charity regulator, grantmaking foundations themselves, and the organizations which seek their grants.

The research by the University of St Andrews Business School’s Centre for the Study of Philanthropy and Public Good (CSPPG) identifies 315 charities that mainly distribute funds to other organizations, rather than run services themselves. Around half of the foundations, both in number and in terms of total funds, are based in Scotland’s two largest cities, Edinburgh and Glasgow.

These foundations generated a collective total income of £2.6bn in their last year, a figure significantly larger than the £601m of grants made. However, the researchers warned that it could be a mistake for the Scottish Government to create laws, like those seen in other countries, to force foundations to distribute a certain percentage of their assets each year.

“The modelling suggests importing a similar rule without careful design could backfire,” a CSPPG press release says, noting that it might encourage some to “cut back to the minimum”, reducing the sector’s total outlay.

Other recommendations in the report for the Government include engaging with foundations with low levels of grantmaking, and to develop further regulations for emerging forms of philanthropy, such as donor advised funds (DAFs). Meanwhile, recommendations for the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR) focus on improving the data available on grantmaking foundations and charities to enable better policymaking.

On this point, the project’s lead research Dr Christopher Dougherty says:

“We now have a clearer picture of the scale of foundation wealth in Scotland, but we still lack reliable data on restrictions, investments and grant recipients. Without that, it is very difficult to design evidence-based policy.”

Meanwhile, grantmaking foundations are urged to “consider economic counter-cyclical funding practices, to increase funding when economic conditions are worse to better respond to community needs”, alongside three other recommendations around better engagement with both others in the sector, and local and national government.

Grantseekers are told to “focus on pragmatism in approaching grantmaking foundation”.

Last year, Fundraising Europe highlighted new research showing that there are approximately 175,203 foundations across Europe, with total annual expenditure of €76bn. CSPPG’s data therefore shows that Scotland’s foundation make up just under 1% of that total expenditure, but represent only 0.2% of total foundations.

Picture by Henrik Hjortshøj on Unsplash

According to the report, public donations continued to drop between 2024 and 2025, with people giving an estimated £14bn in 2025, compared to £15.4bn in 2024. The public’s mean monthly donation was £65 in 2025, down from £72 in 2024, while the median donation also declined by 9%, from £28 to £26.

Affordability and (lack of) interest

The survey respondents who did not donate to charity in 2025 were asked the reasons why. The most common response by far was ‘I can’t afford it’ (49%), followed by ‘I don’t trust charities to use my money wisely’ (19%), ‘I just didn’t want to’ (10%) and ‘There hasn’t been a charity that’s interested me enough (9%)’.

CAF says that nearly three in 10 (28%) of non-donors gave an answer suggesting that they weren’t interested in charities in general, with that figure rising to just under half (49%) of those who are higher and additional rate taxpayers – a more affluent group of UK residents, numbering roughly seven million.

For those who donate to charity, the majority are motivated by an emotional reason (78%), such as caring about the cause, and because they want to be part of something bigger (53%), such as supporting their community or making a difference.

Sectors and methods

The overseas aid and disaster relief sector has been particularly badly hit – total donations have dropped from £970m in 2016 to £727m in 2025.

Health charities have the broadest support (43% of donors supporting them last year), but on average give £27, which is on par with the sector-wide average.

While only 8% of donors gave to religious causes last year, their donations were on average far higher than for any other sector at £90 – no other sector had a figure in excess of £60. Religious charities were particularly popular among donors in Northern Ireland and the East of England, while London donors had a particular interest in environmental charities.

More than a quarter of all giving – £4bn in total – is ‘planned’, which CAF defines as meaning it comes through direct debits, standing orders, membership fees and subscriptions. Meanwhile, 40% of donors said they normally only give to charity when directly asked or moved by an appeal, and a third of donors still like to donate cash.

Mark Greer, managing director of the Charities Aid Foundation says:

“Giving falling by nearly 10% in a year will be a significant concern for charities up and down the country who are providing vital services to people in need. We have been relying on a declining number of dedicated donors, but the reality of this trend has begun to bite.

“To support our communities, we need a collaborative effort to revive the culture of giving across the country. This includes exploring ways we can encourage donations from those that can afford to give, and policy action from the Government to unlock greater giving.” 

The charities with the largest purpose expenditure (Zweckausgaben) in 2024 were:

• €996.8m by RAG-Stiftung, which finances a range of ecological and social projects in post-industrial regions
• €804.9m by KENFO, the fund established to finance Germany’s radioactive waste storage
• €706.9m by VolkswagenStiftung, a research funder created following the privatisation of carmaker Volkswagen

KENFO is one of 21 public law foundations in the list, meaning it was created by a public entity. The other 39 are private law foundations, which are set up by a private company or individual.

KENFO has by far the largest total equity of any foundation in either list, at €19.7bn.

No other public law foundation has more than €1bn, although seven private law foundations are larger than this – the biggest are Robert Bosch Stiftung GmbH (€5.3bn) and Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (€2.9bn), with VolkswagenStiftung third (€2.8bn).

Outside of these very large foundations, the list also contains some which are comparatively more modest – six have equity of less than €10m.

In terms of purpose spending, the lowest figure was €600,000 by the Breisgauer Katholischer Religionsfonds, a regional Catholic fund. Four other public law foundations linked to the church also had spending of less than €3m, which in each case is less than 1% of their equity.

There are also several foundations whose spending is larger than their equity, demonstrating the varied financial models of the organisations on the list.

An additional €1.4bn

The organisation’s annual top 60 list is published at the start of the year, and the latest figure is notably larger than last year’s, which showed total spending (in 2023) of €5.4bn.

However, as BDS notes, these two figures are not directly comparable, nor do they necessarily capture every relevant foundation. This is because of factors including that some foundations do not have to make their annual reports public, or do not provide these as part of this research in some or all years.

Friederike v. Bünau, secretary-general of the Bundesverband Deutscher Stiftungen, says:

“With their voluntary information, the listed foundations make visible the creative power in the German foundation sector. With their transparency, they are going ahead as good examples. Especially in the current socio-political debate about the role of civil society organisations, they are making an important contribution that can strengthen the public’s trust in the work of foundations.”

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Bringing together nearly 50 researchers and covering 20 European countries, the volume maps research and data on donations by households, bequests, corporations, foundations and independent charity lotteries.

As well as mapping giving, the study also assesses data quality, representativeness, and methodological approaches across countries, finding that while philanthropy represents a substantial and diverse contribution to European societies, there are structural gaps in how this activity is measured and understood. Some countries, ERNOP found, maintain robust and representative data systems and others have just fragmented surveys or partial estimates.

Commenting, Barry Hoolwerf, director of ERNOP and co-editor of the volume, said:

“At a time when European societies face profound uncertainty, private initiative is increasingly expected to contribute to the common good. Yet we cannot responsibly debate the role of philanthropy without understanding its scale, structure, and limits. Europe does not lack philanthropic commitment. What it lacks is a shared and durable system to understand it. Strengthening Europe’s philanthropic data infrastructure is essential for informed public debate and sound policy.”

Public webinar

Philanthropy in Europe will be pre-released to ERNOP members on 3 March with a free public webinar taking place on 24 March, at 3PM-4PM CET. Editors Barry Hoolwerf and Johan Vamstad will present the main insights and discuss implications for research, policy, and practice. Sevda Kilicalp (head of knowledge & learning, Philea), Charlotte Rydh (EFA board member and CEO of Giva Sverige) and Malcolm Fleming (president, Association of Charity Lotteries in Europe) will reflect on the findings in a moderated panel discussion.

Philanthropy in Europe will be made available as an Open Access publication.

Registration for the free public webinar is open here (capacity is limited).

Main picture: by Hartono Creative Studio for Unsplash+

The 2025 Rapport Sur Les Dons Suisse or Spendenreport Schweiz shows 82% of households making a donation in 2024. This is a substantial increase from 72% in the year before, and more in line with figures in the low eighties recorded in previous reports.

However, the median donation fell to CHF300 (€321), the lowest figure since 2019, a year-on-year decrease of 25%. The report says that median donations from young families, who have been hit particularly hard by the economic climate, dropped by 50%.

Household giving rates grew from 74% to 82% in the country’s German-speaking majority, and from 66% to 79% among its French-speaking population. In its Italophone community, the smallest of Switzerland’s three major groups, giving rates dropped slightly, from 76% to 74%.

Donors’ preferred causes remained similar to in previous years. Survey respondents were most likely to cite domestic social and emergency (48%) and nature, the environment and animals (also 48%) as priorities, closely followed by children and young people (46%) and disability (45%).

Swissfundraising board member Ruth Wagner writes in the report:

“Overall, the sector’s reputation is good and stable. Some aspects such as transparency or innovation capacity are (still) judged somewhat more critically in 2024, and lack of confidence and questioning of charities’ effectiveness are increasingly cited as reasons for not donating.”

“In my opinion, two aspects are extremely important for market development and future success: the media mix is ​​becoming increasingly crucial, and donor loyalty needs to be rethought. It is precisely in digital channels, but also in broadcasting, that one can achieve relatively low-cost reach – and awareness is fundamentally important as background noise and a driving force, not just for conversion.”

Other articles in the Rapport Sur Les Dons include a look back at the AI usage guidance issued by Swissfundraising earlier in the year, and it also includes data from a recently-released report by the Zewo Foundation, based on data from a group of major Swiss charities.

Zewo’s report estimated that total giving in the country in 2024 was 2.25bn CHF, the same figure as in 2023. This total has now been in excess of 2bn CHF for five consecutive years.

Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash

The findings come from research commissioned by Open Society Institute Sofia, published in November, and are, the Bulgarian Donors Forum notes here, ‘a strong indicator that engagement with NGOs is associated with higher civic courage and democratic attitudes.’

The findings show that support is highest among people with higher education (73%) and residents of large cities, while attitudes are divided in villages – 41% “for”, 43% “against”. Two-thirds of respondents believe that Bulgaria will continue to develop democratically in the coming years.

Although 85% approve of fair elections as the basis of governance, 50% support the idea of a “strong leader who rules without parliament and elections,” and 58% would accept rule by technocrats. A military regime has minimal support (14%), with the Institute also saying that the fact that a significant portion of society tolerates authoritarian decisions is a signal of distrust in institutions and a search for alternative models.

Overall, 33% would risk their personal safety to defend democracy, with 20% ready to volunteer in the event of war. Civic activism remains significant – 44% are willing to join petitions, and the same percentage to take part in rallies and marches when dissatisfied with the government.

When looking for examples of good governance, Bulgarians primarily point to democratic countries: Germany (11%) and Switzerland (9%) lead the way, while Russia is mentioned by only 2%. Support for democracy is twice as high among people who support Bulgaria’s membership in the EU and NATO.

At the same time as the report launch, the Bulgarian Parliament announced the decision to create an “anti-Soros” commission – a move widely criticised by CSOs. The Forum states that ‘the report shows Bulgarians want more democracy, more fair elections and functioning institutions, not a witch hunt against organizations that have transparently and sustainably supported causes and needs for years where the state has been absent.’

It adds that ‘such actions do not solve problems – they deepen them by replacing the agenda with political spectacle.’ In response, Bulgarian civil society organisations have come together to create the Position Statement: a declaration that CSOs will resist any tactics to intimidate or restrict them, which currently lists more than 600 signatories.

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Companies donated 7.7 billion CZK, up from 6.7 billion CZK in 2023), while individual donors gave 3.9 billion CZK (a slight increase from 3.6 billion in 2023), and foundations and endowment funds 4.2 billion CZK (a significant increase from 3.8 billion in 2023).

The 2025 Donation Map focuses on the scope and trends of philanthropy in the Czech Republic. According to the Forum, the data confirms a long-term growing interest in supporting publicly beneficial projects across society, from foundations and endowment funds to companies and individuals.

Donor SMS

Another noticeable increase was recorded in DMS (SMS giving), due to the 2024 floods, raising 64 million CZK by sending almost 800 thousand donor SMS messages.

Overall, the Forum shares, since DMS launched in 2004, approximately 27.2 million donation SMS messages have been sent, with the total amount raised now exceeding 1 billion crowns for the first time. As well as one-off donations, it is possible to donate regularly through DMS, and to choose from six price levels, with two new price levels for one-time and regular giving introduced in September 2025: 290 and 490 crowns.

Foundations and funds

The Donation Map shows that there are currently 3,427 foundations and funds in the Czech Republic, distributing 4.2 billion crowns, of which 467 (14%) were established by companies and 2,960 (86%) by other entities. They most often support education, science and research (21%), followed by children, youth and family (15%), followed closely by culture and monuments (14%), assistance to the sick and disabled (13%), assistance to the socially disadvantaged (13%), and humanitarian and human rights (7%).

The number of foundations and endowment funds is rising – up by 191 year-on-year. The volume of distributed endowment contributions also continues to increase, shown by support from foundation entities reaching CZK 4.2 billion. This increase, the report says, is mainly due to non-corporate foundation entities. Overall, Czech foundations and endowment funds distributed CZK 400 million more than in 2023 (an increase of approximately 10.5%).

Klára Šplíchalová, executive director of the Donors Forum, said:

“The foundation sector in the Czech Republic has long shown that it is a stable and reliable partner for publicly beneficial projects. This year, support for foundations and endowment funds rose to 4.2 billion crowns, which confirms their growing role and responsibility towards society. However, for philanthropy to truly bring long-term effects, it must be sustainable – strategically planned, connected across sectors and focused on real impact.”

Motivations for giving

The biggest motivation for donating funds is how doing so makes people feel, cited by 81% of donors, while before giving, donors mainly consider who the money will help (68%) and how it will be used (61%).

Trust is also an important factor, and is growing: in 2023 60% of Czechs trusted the public benefit sector, rising to 63% in 2024. Personal experience with a collection or platform is important for approximately a third of respondents.

However, fraudulent and non-transparent collections are a significant risk: 24% of donors encountered these in the past year, the same as in 2023, according to the report.

Economic impact

More than a quarter of donors in the Czech Republic say they are donating less than before. The main reasons cited are a decrease in income or living standards and general price increases.

A fifth believe that in the current economic situation, the state should rather help those in need. A similar proportion of those surveyed are bothered by the fact that there are too many collections. For one in ten, the reason for limiting donations is a bad experience with a specific collection or collection platform.

Similar to 2023, only one in ten donors say they currently donate more than before, and this tends to be among regular donors. Almost half perceive helping others as even more necessary in the current economic situation, and for a similar proportion of donors, the main reason is an increase in income in the last year.

The data also shows that the most popular way to donate is to purchase a collectible item (73%). This is followed by online payment (70%), cash donation (58%) and donation SMS (49%).

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