New research from the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) reveals how people give to good causes in countries around the world and what influences people to be generous. As the leading global study on generosity and civil society, CAF’s World Giving Report uses insights from more than 60,000 people to explore giving across 105 countries.
Around the world, 61% of people donated last year, either directly to people in need, to charity, or for religious reasons. This has declined slightly from 64% in 2024. On average, people donated 1% of their income but levels vary. People in Africa give an average of 1.6% of their income, compared to 0.6% in Europe.
Nigeria is the world’s most generous country, where people give an average of 2.8% of their income to charities, for religious reasons or to people in need. The ten most generous countries are in Africa and Asia.
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In Brazil, the results point to a stable scenario, accompanied by important changes in people’s motivations for giving. The percentage of people who made some type of donation in 2025 fell from 62% to 59%. Even so, donations to civil society organisations remained stable in the country, with 28% of people making a monetary donation to NGOs and 19% donating time through volunteering.
According to the survey, 61% of the global population made some type of donation over the past year, whether to civil society organisations, directly to people in socially vulnerable situations, or for religious reasons. On average, respondents destined 1% of their income to these contributions. In Brazil, the average was 0.9% of income.
The survey also indicates that adults aged 25 to 44 donate a proportionally larger share of their income than people over 55. Among the causes supported, religious initiatives rank first, receiving contributions from 31% of respondents. They are followed by initiatives focused on children and young people and on tackling poverty, both supported by 29% of respondents.
Community and trust strengthen the culture of giving
One of the report’s main findings is the relationship between the sense of belonging to one’s community and levels of giving. In countries where more than 80% of the population says they feel a strong connection to their local community, average donations reach 1.7% of income. In countries where less than half of the population shares this feeling, the average falls to 0.6%.
The Brazilian results are directly aligned with this finding. Among the reasons for giving, the share of people who say they contribute to support their local communities increased from 25% to 32%. There was also an increase in the percentage of those who understand giving as a collective duty, rising from 39% to 48% — a figure well above the global average (36%) and the South American average (17%).
The study also found that people tend to support mainly organisations working in their communities (56%) or nationally (55%), compared with organisations operating across several countries (22%).
In addition, factors such as transparency and clarity about the impact of donations appear among the main elements that could encourage greater participation from the population. Globally, 63% of respondents say that greater transparency about how organisations are managed would increase their willingness to donate, and 47% would like to better understand the results achieved by the initiatives they support. In Brazil, it was interesting to see that 27% of donors were influenced to give by media coverage, demonstrating the strength of this institution in driving generosity.
“These shifts point to a more conscious donor, one who understands their role in building collective solutions and is therefore also more demanding. Transparency regarding the use of resources and clarity about the impact generated emerge as essential conditions for increasing donations. Strengthening trust will be decisive in transforming intention into action and consolidating a more robust culture of giving in Brazil,” says Paula Fabiani, CEO of IDIS.
