2025 Trends & Themes

Understanding the 2025 GPEI

The 2025 GPEI was developed in partnership with 173 country, regional, and global experts — who assessed the enabling environment for philanthropy across 95 countries and economies. The 2025 GPEI focuses on the three years between January 2021 and December 2023. During this period, while recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic, the world experienced innovation, rapid advancements in artificial intelligence (AI), rising inflation, large-scale natural disasters, record-breaking global temperatures, armed conflicts, and mass human displacement. As evident from this research, philanthropy played a role related to each of these developments. Looking ahead, notable developments now influencing the philanthropic environment include intergenerational wealth transfers, political polarization, reductions in official development assistance, and regional efforts to enable cross-border giving. As such global opportunities and challenges continue to unfold, the capacity and capability of philanthropy to respond is tested, to which the 2025 GPEI offers local and cross-border perspectives.

 Download the full 2025 GPEI global report

 Download the 2025 GPEI executive summary

Explore the map

The above interactive map shows the overall assessment of each economy’s philanthropic environment on a scale from 1.0 to 5.0. A total of 95 countries and economies across 15 geographic regions were studied, including seven new economies and one new region since the last report was published in 2022, including Bahrain, El Salvador, The Bahamas, Uganda and three countries located in the Baltic region - Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia.

View the 95 country and 15 regional reports

High-level findings

• Three-fifths (or 61%) of the represented economies report a favorable philanthropic environment (a score of 3.50 or above). The average GPEI score was 3.60.

• Among the six factors, the average score for the ease of operating a philanthropic organization is highest (4.01), while the average score for cross-border philanthropic flows is lowest (3.40).

Regional Comparison

• Comparing the 15 represented regions, Western Europe offers the most favorable philanthropic environment with average scores well above 3.5 on all six factors, and Latin America remains the most challenging philanthropic environment with average scores below 3.5 on five of the six factors.

2025 GPEI compared with 2018 & 2022 GPEI Results

• Of the 95 economies participating in the 2025 GPEI, 77 economies were also represented in the 2018 and 2022 editions of the GPEI, allowing for comparison over time. Among these 77 economies, the average GPEI worldwide score remained stable (3.65 in 2018 & 2022 and 3.63 in 2025).
• Comparing six factors over time, the average score for political environments showed the largest increase (3.42 to 3.52) while the average score for cross-border philanthropic flows experienced the sharpest drop (3.58 to 3.42). Though the economic environment factor was not included in the 2018 GPEI, its average score declined between the 2022 GPEI and 2025 GPEI (3.56 to 3.44).

Lasting Innovations & Emerging Trends

• Collaborations between POs and digital adaptations, which emerged in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, appear mainstream. Digital adaptations include hybrid and virtual workplaces, fundraising applications, online programming, and culturally competent uses of online influencers.

• Climate change and professionalization are noted as emerging trends for the philanthropic sector and charitable organizations in more than half of the economies represented. Another standout trend is digital technology, including online crowdfunding and innovative uses and testing of AI. A handful of economies acknowledge blockchain technology as an emerging digital trend.

New in 2025

Based on collective feedback, three new goals emerged for the 2025 GPEI. First, policy-oriented questions were included in the expert opinion questionnaire to support the mapping of climate philanthropy, lasting innovations from the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and emerging trends. Next, a secondary, scores-only survey was administered in select countries to elicit broader input on the country scores. Finally, language access and additional translation of the global report are forthcoming and noted as important for improved reach within regions.