The Global Philanthropy Environment Index (GPEI) is a research tool that supports global leaders with knowledge on how and where the philanthropic environment is evolving and—most importantly—provides inspiration on how to maximize and reimagine philanthropy’s ability to help solve pressing challenges.
Even in times of global uncertainty, generosity remains universal, and philanthropy is called to action and valued across cultures and societies. The GPEI is a rare resource that helps explain what motivates or impedes the environment for such activities. First launched in 2013, the 2025 GPEI is the only global, collaborative study—conducted in partnership with 173 experts—that assesses the enabling environment for philanthropy across 95 countries and economies, based on the incentives and barriers that individuals and philanthropic organizations (POs) encounter when giving and receiving charitable gifts.
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.
The 2025 GPEI indicates that while 61 percent of the included economies reflect an overall favorable philanthropic environment between 2021 and 2023, and the socio-cultural environment remains favorable in almost all regions, there is a continued decline in conditions for cross-border philanthropic flows. Notable changes are observed over time and across regions with some countries and regions experiencing improvements while others reporting new challenges. An overview of these main shifts is provided on the next pages while other significant changes are detailed in the body of this report.
This global report features key findings and global takeaways, while more in-depth discovery is available across the 2025 GPEI collection of 15 regional and 95 country reports, publicly available at https://globalindices.indianapolis.iu.edu/
