What Recession? Americans Set a Record (Again) For Charitable Giving
The Good
- Patriotic: 79%
- Honest: 69%
- Intelligent: 67%
The Bad:
- Selfish: 68%
- Lazy: 50%
The 68 percent that thought Americans were selfish may have not read the recent statistics according to the annual report published by Giving USA. These so called “selfish” Americans broke a record for a second year in a row, estimating $373.25 billion donated in 2015, up 4 percent from 2014 when Americans donated $359.04 billion. The charitable contributions came from U.S. individuals, estates, foundations and corporations. These mind blowing dollars make Americans the most charitable on Earth, contributing one third of all donations contributed in the world.
So why are Americans more generous than ever? According to the Giving USA report, continuing economic recovery from the 2008 recession and steadied household finances were two of the key factors that allowed Americans to be more giving the last two years. With increases in personal disposable income, wealth and consumption, individual Americans were the largest source of charity. Throw in growth in corporate pre-tax profits, corporations also increased their generosity by 3.9 percent. Below is the breakdown of how the $373.25 billion was donated by the four main sources of giving:
- Individuals: $264.58 billion, up 3.8 percent in current dollars over 2014.
- Foundations: $58.46 billion, was 6.5 percent higher than 2014
- Charitable bequests: $31.76 billion, an increase of 2.1 percent over 2014.
- Corporate: $18.45 billion, up 3.9 percent over 2014 giving.
With billions of American dollars being donated, who are the lucky charitable organizations to receive this generosity? The nine major categories are: Religion – $119.30 billion was donated to religious organizations in 2015, an increase of 2.7 percent in current dollars. Religion still remains the most popular charitable organization to receive donations. Education – increased to $57.48 billion, 8.9 percent more in current dollars than the 2014 donated total. Human Services – its $45.21 billion total donations received was 4.2 percent higher, in current dollars, than in 2014. Foundations – roughly $42.26 billion was donated to various Foundations in 2015, the only category where donations decreased in 2015, dropping 3.8 percent in current dollars, from 2014. Health – an estimated total of $29.81 billion was donated to Health organizations in 2015, giving this category an increase of 1.3 percent in current dollars from its 2014 estimated total. Public-Society Benefit – the $26.95 billion estimate for 2015 increased 6.0 percent in current dollars over 2014. Arts/Culture/Humanities – at an estimated $17.07 billion, growth in current dollars was 7.0 percent in 2015 from 2014. International Affairs – the $15.75 billion estimate for 2015 increased 17.5 percent from 2014, the largest increase of all the categories. Environment/Animals – an estimated $10.68 billion was donated to this category in 2015, up 6.2 percent in current dollars over its 2014 donation total. A bonus statistic, Individuals were the beneficiaries of almost 2 percent of 2015’s total charitable giving, which calculates to roughly $6.56 billion. These contributions were mainly in-kind donations of medicine contributed by pharmaceutical foundations’ patient assistance programs.
That’s a whopping eight out of nine categories that saw an increase in donations during 2015. So, the next time you hear someone call Americans “selfish”, tell them to read this article or to check out the Giving USA annual report for themselves.
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