The Center for High Impact Philanthropy’s annual giving toolkit provides individual donors and professional grantmakers with actionable guidance for high impact giving year-round.

We include a practical guide on what high impact philanthropy really means and four high-level strategies to help you practice it, no matter what cause or geographic community you care about. To illustrate how high impact philanthropy can be practiced across issue areas, we profile twelve exemplars with potential to achieve high impact and share lessons learned that can be applied in your own community.

In this Toolkit

This year, our High Impact Giving Toolkit focuses on strategies for practicing high impact philanthropy. Whether you have $5 or $5 billion, we hope this toolkit and our team’s efforts help you translate your generosity and good intentions into greater social impact.

How to Practice High Impact Philanthropy

No one wants to practice “low-impact” philanthropy. But what does “high impact philanthropy” actually mean?

We define high impact philanthropy as the practice of using private philanthropic resources for the public good. In other words, it’s philanthropy for social impact.

The 2025 High Impact Giving Toolkit includes three Emerging Topics in Philanthropy that our team identified as particularly effective strategies for amplifying funders’ philanthropic impact, no matter the cause area or community they care about. This section highlights three tools: Collective Giving, Guaranteed Income, and News & Civic Information.

Four Philanthropic Plays

Philanthropic support takes many forms. It can fund nonprofit programs that provide services directly to those in need; increase the capacity of systems so that multiple programs and organizations are more effective and efficient; support policy & advocacy initiatives that change the environment in which nonprofits work; and fund research & innovation with the potential for game-changing progress.

Takeaways from Nonprofit Exemplars

Here, you’ll find a list of the organizations profiled with take-away lessons learned, as well as links to other nonprofits we’ve profiled in recent years that are performing related work.

Read the full article about high impact giving at Center for High Impact Philanthropy.