Families with $500 million or more give about 1.2% of assets a year, Bridgespan's Bradach says

Families with $500 million or more in assets gave about 1.2% of those assets in 2017, and when the Bridgespan Group repeated the analysis for 2023, the figure was essentially unchanged, Bridgespan co-founder Jeffrey Bradach wrote this summer. The Chronicle of Philanthropy revisited the finding on October 5 in an article by Stephanie Beasley on why giving by the ultrawealthy is not keeping pace with their fortunes.

What the numbers measure

Bradach laid out the research in a Bridgespan essay dated July 29 and in an adaptation published by the Stanford Social Innovation Review on July 30. He calls the pattern "slow philanthropy." Giving has held at about 1.2% of assets even as those assets grew at rates at or above the S&P 500's long-run average of roughly 9% a year, the SSIR adaptation says. The Chronicle summarized that growth as roughly 9% a year on average.

A flat share is not flat dollars. "In absolute dollars, giving rose," Bradach wrote. The gap he describes is between that giving and the much faster growth of the wealth behind it.

The Chronicle also cited Bloomberg News data showing that the world's 25 richest families increased their wealth by more than $350 billion over 2025. That is a global list, not the group in Bridgespan's analysis, so the two figures describe different families and should not be combined.

Why advisers say giving lags

The Chronicle interviewed people who advise wealthy donors, including Bradach, Stephanie Ellis-Smith, founder of the advisory firm Phīla Engaged Giving, and Caroline Hodkinson of Bessemer Trust. They pointed to a fear of failure that keeps funders waiting to feel secure, and to a reluctance to cede control over decisions. Ellis-Smith described an "analysis paralysis" that emerges as people get wealthier.

Top among the obstacles, the Chronicle reported, is a fear of backlash. Katherine Lorenz, who leads the Giving Pledge's Next Gen group, pushed back on the idea that slow giving will last indefinitely. She attributed much of the delay to younger donors who have not yet built the staff and plans for large-scale giving. "You do need to just get going, and then learn as you go," she said. Bradach is skeptical that heirs will change the pattern, telling the Chronicle that "these folks are in their 40s and 50s," with habits already formed.

The Chronicle also noted skepticism among some newer wealthy donors. On the Katie Miller Pod, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said "a lot of charities and philanthropies are actually net negative on the world," Fortune reported on September 10; he said he has a donor-advised fund but called starting a foundation now "crazy." Fortune reported in March, citing a New York Times interview, that Peter Thiel said he has "strongly discouraged people from signing" the Giving Pledge. These are individual views, not a measure of how the whole group behaves.

What Bradach proposes

Bradach points to collaborative funds and platforms such as the Audacious Project and Blue Meridian Partners; the Chronicle also named Maverick Collective. He suggests adding payout requirements to donor-advised funds and making it easier to direct bequests to a broader range of nonprofits, which the Chronicle said would help organizations get large gifts that more typically go to private foundations and elite institutions. "None of it ... is a silver bullet," he told the Chronicle.

What mid-size nonprofits can take from it

Neither the Chronicle nor Bridgespan analyzes mid-size nonprofits, and few of them will have $500 million families as prospects. What follows is our view, not a finding from either source.

• Treat delay as the default. Bradach wrote that nonprofits compete with a donor's option to leave the money in the bank. A specific ask with a real reason to act this year gives donors a deadline.
• Lower the perceived risk. If fear of public failure holds donors back, say plainly what you will do if a program underperforms, and report results candidly.
• Budget on gifts received, not on stated intent or capacity.
• Ask donors who hold donor-advised funds to recommend grants, and raise planned giving, since bequests are one area Bradach wants to open up.