Millions more Americans will likely donate to nonprofits following changes in tax laws passed by Congress last summer, but those changes will also likely reduce the overall amount of money given to charity, according to new research.

The report from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy published Tuesday reflects how “top heavy” charitable giving is, meaning the largest donors and corporations have an outsized impact on overall giving trends, said Jon Bergdoll, interim director of data and research partnerships at the school, who also led the research.

New tax deductions available to most tax filers will encourage between 6 and 8.7 million more Americans to donate to nonprofits over time, the researchers found. However, gifts to nonprofits will likely drop around $5.6 billion annually because of new rules that apply to corporations and to the wealthiest people.

Bergdoll cautioned that these impacts won’t take effect immediately. He said other macroeconomic forces are likely to have a much larger impact on the total amount donated to nonprofits in 2026 than the changes in the new law, called the One Big Beautiful Bill.

A drop in giving by $5.6 billion would represent less than 1% of the $592.50 billion that was given to nonprofits in 2024, according to Giving USA. The Treasury Department did not return a request for comment on the impact of the new tax law on charitable giving.

Trump's tax law changes may increase the number of donors, but reduce donations to nonprofits