From Joanne Fritz,
Your Guide to Nonprofit Charitable Orgs.
FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!

Giving USA, the yearbook of philanthropy, estimates Americans gave total contributions of $260.28 billion for 2005, a growth of 6.1 percent (2.7 percent adjusted for inflation).

Unprecedented Giving to Domestic and Foreign Disasters

The year 2005 saw extraordinary philanthropic response to three major natural disasters. About half of the $15 billion increase in total giving from the revised estimate of $245.22 billion in 2004 is attributable to disaster relief giving. The other half reflects donors’ commitments to other causes that matter to them.

Major natural disasters in the U.S. and abroad between December 2004 and October 2005 generated at least $7.37 billion in contributions (2.8 percent of total estimated giving) in 2005.

Of the disaster giving, individuals contributed an estimated $5.83 billion, or 79 percent of the estimated total in disaster relief contributions for 2005.

Corporations gave an estimated $1.38 billion, or 19 percent of the estimated total of disaster relief gifts. The balance of disaster relief giving, an estimated $160 million ($0.16 billion) based on records from the Foundation Center, was paid by foundations in 2005, for 2 percent of the estimated amount for disaster relief.

“Disaster relief certainly played a role in 2005,” said Richard T. Jolly, chair of the Giving USA Foundation. “Relief contributions are estimated to be roughly 3 percent of the total. An additional $253 billion in gifts supported more than 1.4 million charities including religious congregations, schools, clinics, arts groups, food banks, and more.”

Individuals Account for Bulk of Giving

Giving USA reports giving from four sources of contributions—individual (living) donors; bequests by deceased individuals; foundations; and corporations.

Individual giving is always the largest single source of donations. It rose by 6.4 percent. (2.9 percent adjusted for inflation) to an estimated $199.07 billion. It accounts for 76.5 percent of all estimated giving in 2005.

In addition to estimating giving by source of contribution, Giving USA surveys charitable organizations to find out how charitable gift receipts changed from one year to the next. The results for 2005 show a strong rate of growth in general, although some subsectors fared less well than others.

Giving USA found that 59 percent of organizations reported an increase in charitable receipts in 2005. This is even before adding contributions for disaster relief. The year 2005 saw the highest percentage of charitable organizations reporting growth since 2000 and the lowest percentage of charities reporting a drop in giving.”

The Winners and Losers

Even with overall growth in charitable giving, some subsectors grew more than others. The arts, culture and humanities, and health saw inflation-adjusted giving decline in 2005.

Giving grew by more than 10 percent in human services, environment and animals, and international affairs.

Human services charities reported an astounding 15 percent increase (11.3 percent adjusted for inflation) in charitable receipts before adding donations for disaster relief.

This reverses a prior three-year decline in gifts to this sector when inflation was taken into account. With disaster relief giving added, giving to human services rose by more than 32 percent, to $25.36 billion.

Environmental organizations and groups working for animal welfare saw giving rise 16.4 percent (12.6 percent adjusted for inflation). Growth in charitable receipts was reported by environment and animals organizations of all sizes, before adding any disaster-related gifts. With disaster relief giving included, this subsector reached $8.86 billion in contributions received.

Resources

For more complete information see .