GiveWell fundraising up 49% in 2025, driven overwhelmingly by 39 donors giving $1M+

Published on October 2, 2026 9:19 PM GMT Previously: GiveWell raised less than its 10th percentile forecast in 2023 · GiveWell fundraising up 17% in 2024 GiveWell has published its 2025 metrics, together with a metrics report and a public spreadsheet. As in previous years, I focus on how much was raised and who gave it. This year I also look at how concentrated GiveWell's donor base is. Truth be told I kinda phoned it in on this one, the full Claude version with better charts is here Summary Returning donors gave $443.6M (up 77%). New donors gave $37.1M (up 112%), which is still below their 2020–2022 levels. 39 donors giving $1M or more contributed $359.7M. That is 75% of identified donations through GiveWell and 90% of the year's increase. Every smaller size band also grew, by 13–27%. The donor base is far more concentrated than an 80/20 rule. The top 20% of donors gave about 97% of the money, and about 0.26% of donors (roughly 90) gave 80%. Asking the question again within the top group (the top 20% of the top 20%, and so on) gives 94%, 93% and 92%, rather than 80% each time. Returning donors drove the increase Returning donors gave $443.6M, up 77% on 2024. That is 72% of all funds raised and 86% of the money from donors other than Coefficient Giving, both the highest shares in the series. The average returning donor gave about $20,800, against $12,300 in 2024. New donors gave $37.1M, up 112%. This reverses three years of decline ($41.2M in 2022, $20.5M in 2023, $17.5M in 2024), but it remains below 2020–2022 levels. Anonymous giving fell 7% to $35.6M. The number of donors rose for the first time since 2021. There were 13,796 new donors (up 34%) and 21,315 returning donors, a record. Together that makes 35,111 identified donors, up 14%, but still below the 2021 peak of about 41,900. Interactive version: Datawrapper.Interactive version: Datawrapper. The increase was driven overwhelmingly by $1M+ donations GiveWell reports donations that pass through its own accounts by donor size, with each donor placed in a band by their total gifts in the year. On this measure, identified donations rose by $230.4M, from $246.7M to $477.1M. $1M+ donors: 39 (up from 26) gave $359.7M, up 138%. That accounts for $208.4M, or 90%, of the increase. The average gift in this band rose from $5.8M to $9.2M, so the growth came both from more very large donors and from larger gifts. Every smaller band also grew: $100K–$1M by 27%, $10K–$100K by 23%, $1K–$10K by 19%, $100–$1K by 14% and under $100 by 13%. Giving below $1M rose 23% in total, against 10% in 2024, so growth was broader than last year even though the top band dominated it. The $1M+ share of identified donations through GiveWell rose from 43% in 2020 to 61% in 2024 and 75% in 2025. Donor size20242025ChangeGrowthDonors 2024Donors 2025Average gift 2025 $1M+$151.3M$359.7M+$208.4M+138%2639$9.22M $100K–$1M$31.3M$39.8M+$8.6M+27%152176$226,000 $10K–$100K$36.7M$45.1M+$8.4M+23%1,5811,927$23,400 $1K–$10K$22.2M$26.5M+$4.3M+19%8,2199,703$2,730 $100–$1K$5.0M$5.7M+$0.7M+14%14,14116,187$352 Under $100$0.23M$0.26M+$0.03M+13%6,6587,066$37 All identified donors$246.7M$477.1M+$230.4M+93%30,77735,098$13,600   Interactive version: DatawrapperInteractive version: Datawrapper Is GiveWell's funding 80/20? No: it is far more concentrated An 80/20 rule means the top 20% of donors give 80% of the money. If donations followed a Pareto distribution with that property, the pattern would repeat at every scale. The top 20% of the top 20% (4% of donors) would give 80% of that group's money, which is 64% of the total. The next level down (0.8% of donors) would give 51% of the total, and so on. The size bands give exact figures only at their boundaries ($100, $1K, $10K, $100K and $1M). I interpolated between them (see the methodology section) and report ranges where the data leave room for doubt. For 2025: The top 20% of donors (about 7,000) gave about 97% of the money (range 96.0–97.7%). About 0.26% of donors, roughly 90 people or entities, gave 80% of the money (range 61–136 donors). In 2020–2024 the equivalent figure was 1.5–3.0% of donors. The 39 donors giving $1M+, 0.11% of donors, gave 75%. This figure is exact. Interactive version: Datawrapper Pareto within Pareto Next, I asked the question again within each successive top group. At each level, what share of the group's money did the top 20% of that group give? LevelGroupDonors (2025)Share of the group's money from its top 20% (2025)Range2024202080/20 rule 1Top 20% of all donors≈7,02097.4%96–98%95.8%95.2%80% 2Top 4%≈1,40493.8%92–95%90.2%87.0%80% 3Top 0.8%≈28192.9%92–95%88.2%82.6%80% 4Top 0.16%≈5691.5%90–94%86.4%80.9%80% At every level the data can resolve, 2025 is well above 80%, and even the conservative end of each range is about 90%. Concentration has also risen over time. In 2020 the fourth level was almost exactly 80/20 (80.9%); in 2025 it was 91.5%. Beyond level 4 (about 11 donors, then about 2) the published bands cannot distingu