Just released from the Giving USA Foundation

U.S. charitable giving decreases 3.6% in 2009...

U.S. charitable giving estimated to be $303.75 billion in 2009

Despite overall drop, some types of charities attract more gifts during time of great need; for third year, giving exceeds $300 billion, says Giving USA Foundation

GLENVIEW, IL (June 9, 2010) -- Giving USA FoundationTM and its research partner, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, today announced that estimated total charitable contributions from American individuals, corporations and foundations fell to $303.75 billion in 2009, down from a revised total of $315.08 billion for 2008. The 2009 drop represents a fall of 3.6 percent in current dollars. In 2009 the overall economy saw slight price deflation, which makes the adjusted change in giving year-over-year a decline of 3.2 percent.

"Even in a time of enormous economic upheaval, such as we saw in 2009, Americans continued to be generous to charitable causes," said Giving USA Foundation Chair Edith H. Falk. "While overall giving declined, many donors—including individuals and foundations—made special efforts in 2009 to respond to greater humanitarian needs."

She added that, in addition to support from individuals and foundations, some nonprofits received exceptional support from the corporate sector, which included billions of dollars’ worth of in-kind donations, particularly from information technology firms and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

Giving USA has reported U.S. charitable contributions since 1956. The inflation-adjusted drop of 3.2 percent for 2009 is not as severe as the decline found in 1974, when inflation-adjusted giving fell by 5.5 percent. The year 1974 was also a very difficult year of recession.

 "Speculation was swirling for many months that charitable giving had to be down by a great percentage in 2009," said Nancy Raybin, chair of Giving Institute: Leading Consultants to Non-Profits. (Giving Institute created Giving USA Foundation in 1985; prior to then, the Institute published the annual compendium.) "Anecdotally, our experts across the country heard that strong giving in December made all the difference, and the totals for the year bear that assumption out."

The national results from Giving USA reflect all charitable giving to all charitable organizations in the United States. The national estimates do not show changes that any one organization or any one geographical region or city might have observed; they calculate total giving by more than 75 million households across the United States, more than 1 million companies, an estimated 120,000 estates, and about 77,000 foundations. The gifts go to more than 1.2 million IRS-registered charities and an estimated additional 350,000 American religious congregations.

"Using models we have developed, we estimate that the human services, health, international aid and environment/animals subsectors saw increased contributions," said Patrick M. Rooney, Ph.D., executive director of the Center on Philanthropy. "This focus on vital needs is consistent with what historians tell us happened during the Great Depression."

Giving USA Foundation also announced that, starting today, a free executive summary of the 2010 report will be available on-line. "It has long been a dream of the Foundation to be able to provide as much information free-of-charge as possible," said Falk, "and thanks to our generous donors and sponsors, we are able to start fulfilling that dream this year."

Estimates by type of donor

Individual giving fell an estimated 0.4 percent in 2009, to $227.41 billion (this equates to a 0.0 percent change in inflation-adjusted dollars). Many news reports and polls of the nonprofit sector suggested that individual contributions increased toward the end of the year, as stock market indices rose and as media coverage highlighted the needs faced by charitable organizations.

Charitable bequests were estimated to be $23.8 billion, a decline of an estimated 23.9 percent in 2009 (-23.6 percent adjusted for inflation). This reflects the unusually high level of bequest giving announced in 2008 by the Internal Revenue Service in its data released in late 2009. The 2009 estimate is $0.58 billion above the 2007 estimate, an increase of 2.5 percent.

When revising the 2008 estimate, Giving USA’s used data from the Internal Revenue Service for estate tax returns filed for 2008. A year ago, Giving USA estimated that estate donations would be $19.4 billion in 2008; in late 2009, the IRS reported $28.4 billion claimed on estate tax returns filed in 2008. This and other changes resulted in the revised 2008 total of $315.08 billion. The original estimate, released in June 2009, was total giving of $307.65 billion based on data available in early 2009.

Giving USA’s revised estimate for 2008 includes an unusually large sum reported by the Internal Revenue Service for estate tax returns filed for 2008. In mid-2009 Giving USA estimated that estate donations would be $19.4 billion in 2008; in late 2009, the IRS reported $28.4 billion claimed on estate tax returns filed in 2008. This and other changes resulted in the revised 2008 total of $315.08 billion. The original estimate, released in June 2009, was total giving of $307.65 billion based on data available in early 2009.

Foundation grantmaking by private, community, and operating foundations was $38.44 billion, according to the Foundation Center. It fell by 8.9 percent (-8.6 percent adjusted for inflation). This is a less severe drop than foundations anticipated when the Foundation Center surveyed them early in 2009.

Corporate giving rose to an estimated $14.1 billion, up 5.5 percent (5.9 percent adjusted for inflation). This unexpected bounce takes corporate giving to within 1 percent of its pre-recession level. According to at least two reports (Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy and Community Foundation of Silicon Valley), corporations increased their in-kind donations, which are less affected by recessions. This shift explains at least some of the growth.

Giving estimates by type of recipient

The subsectors, or types of charitable recipients, that saw declines in giving tended to be those that are more likely to receive gifts through capital campaigns, contributions to endowments, and donations of art and property. These include education, grantmaking foundations, arts and culture organizations, and public-society benefit organizations, which include freestanding donor advised funds such as Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund or Schwab Charitable Fund, and Jewish endowments. The change in gifts to religion, a drop of 0.7 percent, might also reflect a shift away from building funds and toward outreach services.

Giving to religion, at 33 percent of total giving, remains the largest share of all contributions, with an estimated $100.95 billion. The estimated decline in giving to religion was 0.7 percent in 2009 (an estimated decrease of 0.3 percent adjusted for inflation).

Giving to education declined to an estimated $40.01 billion, a drop of 3.6 percent in 2009 (-3.2 percent adjusted for inflation). This is the second consecutive year that giving to education has declined. Educational organizations received an estimated 13 percent of the total.

Giving to foundations dropped to $31 billion, a decline of 8 percent (-7.6 percent adjusted for inflation). The Foundation Center and the Center on Philanthropy jointly estimate contributions to this type of recipient. This includes private, community and operating foundations. This subsector received an estimated 10 percent of the total.

Giving to human services is estimated to be $27.08 billion, an increase of 2.3 percent (2.7 percent adjusted for inflation). This subsector received an estimated 9 percent of the total.

Giving for health also shows an estimated increase, to $22.46 billion, or growth of 3.8 percent (4.2 percent adjusted for inflation). This subsector received 7 percent of the total.

Giving for public-society benefit organizations declined an estimated 4.6 percent (-4.2 percent adjusted for inflation). This subsector received an estimated $22.77 billion in 2009 and was 8 percent of the total, when rounded.

Giving to arts, culture and humanities organizations dropped an estimated 2.4 percent (-2.0 percent adjusted for inflation), to $12.34 billion. This subsector was 4 percent of the 2009 total.

Giving to international aid (which includes relief, development and public policy activities) increased an estimated 6.2 percent (6.6 percent adjusted for inflation), reaching $8.89 billion. This was 3 percent of the total.

Giving for environment/animal-related organizations rose 2.3 percent (2.7 percent adjusted for inflation), to an estimated $6.15 billion. This was 2 percent of the total.

Giving to individuals includes grants from foundations to benefit named individuals. Most often, these are gifts of medications to patients in need and are made by operating foundations created by pharmaceutical manufacturers. These gifts are estimated to have remained relatively steady in 2009, at $3.5 billion or 1 percent of the total.

Ask Bee Question

Question: I want to identify six or seven steps -- simple, direct things that should be done in sequence -- between the time we receive the name of a prospect and the time we are ready to ask that person to engage with our organization as a donor. I want it simple: steps that can be put in a reminder list. I'm thinking of things like send a thank you, invite for a visit, put on a mailing list...  The list should be easy to manage and track, regardless of how many persons of interest we attract. Your advice will be very much appreciated.

Answer: Below we have listed some general steps to follow that you should find helpful.  However, we feel it's not as simple as saying, "Here are five to ten hard and fast rules to follow for turning a prospect into a donor."  In our experience, each situation is different, each prospect is different, and what happens in early steps will impact how you proceed in later steps.  That being said, here are our suggestions:  ....To read more or to ask your own question, click here.

Top Gifts of the Week

$100 million from Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff and his wife Lynne to the University of California at San Francisco for construction of a new children's hospital. (Chronicle of Philanthropy, June 17, 2010)

$20 million from Peter and Carolyn Lynch to Boston College to establish a new training program for school principals. (Chronicle of Philanthropy, June 21, 2010)

$10 million from BP PLC to Mississippi State University's Northern Gulf Institute for research on the effects of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. (Associated Press, June 16, 2010)

 

Bill and Melinda Gates and Warren Buffett have launched a massive fund-raising drive encouraging other wealthy people to pledge at least 50% of their fortunes to charity.  Mr. and Mrs. Gates and Mr. Buffett are organizing events, sending e-mails and making calls to other philanthropists.  According to Fortune, $600 billion could be raised if the individuals on the Forbes 400 List pledged half their net worth to charitable causes. (Chronicle of Philanthropy, June 16, 2010)

The recently passed Nonprofit Sector and Community Solutions Act, H.R. 5533, will create two new government bodies to provide recommendations about federal policies affecting nonprofit groups.  The bill also requires federal agencies to improve and expand their collection of data in the nonprofit sector. (Chronicle of Philanthropy, June 16, 2010)

A new report from the Corporation for National and Community Service found that volunteerism in America grew last year by 1.6 million volunteers, for a total of 63.4 million or 27% of the population.  The increase is the largest single-year jump since 2003.  The Corporation's CEO Patrick Covington accounts the increase to several factors, including that many are responding to President Obama's call to service, and more unemployed people may be volunteering to gain work experience. (Chronicle of Philanthropy, June 15, 2010)

 

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