Who Gives Big to Education? A 20-Year National Profile of Major Donors in the U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey

Using 20 years (2004–2023) of Consumer Expenditure Survey data (N = 628,720), we present the first national portrait of U.S. households donating $10,000+ to educational institutions and test alternative "major-gift" thresholds for such charitable giving. These donors are rare (2.4 per 10,000 households or 0.024%) but show a distinct life-cycle profile. Among all households, the probability of a $10,000+ education gift rises by 0.016 percentage-points (pp) per additional $100,000 income, by 0.021 pp with a senior adult (65+), 0.051 pp for graduate-degree holders, and 0.026 pp for "Other" race, but decreases by 0.016 pp when children are present. Among donors to various sectors, income predicts large gifts more strongly for education (+0.057 pp per $10k) than for other charitable (+0.023 pp) or religious causes (+0.017 pp), as does being "other"-race (+1.46 pp). Broader gift thresholds (top decile/quartile) add homeownership, male gender, and Asian race as positive predictors. Collectively, the findings highlight a donor profile of high-capacity, highly educated, older, child-free households, including racially diverse segments.