U.S. Giving Holding Steady
June 21st, 2012
DISCUSS OUR LATEST E-NEWS ARTICLE BELOW!
Giving USA recently released the 57th edition of The Annual Report on Philanthropy for 2011, the nation's "longest-running fact book on the state of American philanthropy." Produced by the Center of Philanthropy at Indiana University, the study details statistics on charitable giving for the past year.
Despite current economic conditions the study found that total estimated charitable giving increased slightly, up 4.0% from the previous year, though that number drops to just 0.9% when adjusted for inflation – a number technically considered flat. Out of the fourteen categories of giving that the Report measures, half saw modest increases after inflation including giving by individuals (up 0.8%) and by bequest (up 8.8%). Giving was up for charitable subsectors including education (up 0.9%), arts, culture, and humanities (up 1.0%), and environmental and animal organizations (up 1.4%).
Giving to human services, health organizations, and public-society benefit organizations all held flat; however, despite inflation, the amount of giving to human services in 2011 ranked the third-highest on record.
Giving to foundations experienced the greatest decline at 8.9%, and giving by foundations dipped by 1.3%. Giving to religion also reflected a fairly significant decline – 4.7% - from 2010. Giving by corporations, when adjusted for inflation, fell by 0.1%.
Also of note is a 15.6% decrease in the total number of 501(c)(3) organizations, down to 1,08,130 compared to 1,280,739 in 2010. Failing to provide required documentation to the IRS by the 2010 cutoff resulted in over 200,000 organizations losing their 501(c)(3) status.
A free copy of the Executive Summary is available for download at www.givingusareports.org. The complete Annual Report is available for purchase.
FOR DISCUSSION: Which results, if any, of the 2011 report surprise you? Do these trends in giving hold true for your organization or did you experience different kinds of results in 2011?
Posted by CNP Staff
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