X-ray of donations in Mexico

For the purposes of the Tax Administration Service (SAT) , authorized donees are non-profit institutions permitted to receive Income Tax- deductible donations from individuals or companies. In 2025, 10,507 authorized donees were reported in Mexico, and from 2023 to date, the total number has decreased by 7 percent.

Some examples of donors include charitable or assistance institutions serving low-income individuals, sectors, and regions; civil societies that conduct scientific or technological research; organizations dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of the arts; and civil associations for the protection, conservation, restoration, and recovery of the nation's cultural heritage, among many others.

Every year, the Ministry of Finance and Public Credit (SHCP) publishes the document titled "Renuncias Recuadatorias 2025" (Tax Waivers 2025), which contains relevant information on the profile of the institutions that receive donations, as well as the donors. The document states that of the total donations, 77% are made by companies and the remaining 23% by individuals. Furthermore, the majority of donations are made in cash (86%), and only 14% are made in kind.

However, it appears that the desire to donate in Mexico is declining, as between 2018 and 2023, corporate donations decreased by 0.07% and those made by individuals fell, on average, 1.5%. During this same period, there were years with more marked declines. For example, from 2020 to 2021, donations from legal entities fell by 28%, while those from individuals fell by 34%.

The report also shows that 45% of donations are given to recipients with tax domicile in Mexico City (CDMX), and this state accounts for approximately 25% of the total number of authorized recipients. If we also consider recipients in Nuevo León and the State of Mexico, 64% of the donations received are located in those three states. In contrast, states such as Chiapas, Oaxaca, and Guerrero only receive 1.2%, 0.9%, and 0.1%, respectively, of the total donations given in the country.

Authorized donors are classified into 12 categories based on their activities. Comparing the 2025 report with the 2024 report shows that donations to charitable institutions have been increasing, accounting for 60% of total donations last year, compared to 53% in 2024. The case of organizations dedicated to scientific or technological research is discouraging, as the donations they received increased from 3% of the total to 2% in the same years.

It's clear that Mexican donors feel significantly more comfortable supporting charitable causes than scientific or technological research centers, which include organizations with a more academic bent, based on the analysis of public policies. For these research centers, which include think tanks, the benefits derived from support are less tangible, given the difficulty of reporting, for example, a specific number of people served or benefited.

Donations channeled to charitable institutions reveal a greater interest in alleviating urgent needs, such as health or food, in certain more vulnerable sectors of society than in addressing the structural causes of the problems. This leads us to believe that there is a lack of full understanding of the importance of directly serving individuals or communities, as well as diagnosing and proposing solutions to the problems they face.

It is urgent to raise awareness of this situation before funding, and therefore organizations dedicated to scientific and technological research, disappears completely. Although it is vital that support arrive through direct assistance, this imbalance in donor interests is limiting civil society's potential to influence public policy changes that address the root causes of problems.