NEWS STORY: In booming economy, giving to charity is up

c. 1999 Religion News Service WASHINGTON _ The point is pretty obvious: When Americans have more money, they give more money to charity. An impressive $175 billion last year. Giving by individuals, encouraged by the buoyant economy, is up 10 percent, and it’s up for the third consecutive year, according to “Giving USA 1999,” an […]

c. 1999 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ The point is pretty obvious: When Americans have more money, they give more money to charity. An impressive $175 billion last year.

Giving by individuals, encouraged by the buoyant economy, is up 10 percent, and it’s up for the third consecutive year, according to “Giving USA 1999,” an annual report on American charitable practices released Tuesday (May 25).


The beneficiaries are the nation’s million or so nonprofit groups _ including churches, soup kitchens, youth groups, disaster relief organizations, museums and universities.

As in every past year, the biggest slice of the pie _ 43 percent, or $76 billion _ went to religious organizations. Contributions to churches, synagogues, mosques and religious charities rose by only 5 percent, but that was 5 percent of a very large amount. What looks like a modest increase amounts to more than $3 billion in new contributions.

Behind religion in dollars received come, in order, education, health, human services, arts, public benefit, environment and international affairs.

Though they each have a much smaller slice than religion, three categories of nonprofit groups saw much bigger increases. Human services organizations, environmental groups and the catch-all category of public benefit, which includes organizations like the United Way, all saw increases of 25 percent or better. The only losers were arts groups, whose gifts shrank from $10.62 billion to $10.53 billion.

Nancy Raybin, chair of the American Association of Fund-raising Counsel Trust for Philanthropy, which does the research for the annual giving report, sees the glass as more than half full, but believes it could be much fuller. What interests her, she said shortly after releasing the report at a press conference in New York, is the potential for individual giving.”It amazes me that as many times as we talk about individual giving, which is 75 percent of the total pie, many people still find this a new idea,”Raybin said.”They persist in thinking it’s foundations and corporations that give the most money. No, it’s individual people.” Foundation grants account for a bit less than 10 percent of all U.S. charitable giving. The amount given out by them in grants jumped by 20 percent last year. Foundations are required by law to give out a minimum of 5 percent of their assets, and many of them saw those assets grow by more than 20 percent.

“The same stock market that fuels foundation giving has also increased the assets of individuals,” Raybin observed. “People don’t just give out of income, they give out of accumulated wealth. It’s required for foundations to give a minimum of 5 percent. Five percent isn’t a floor, or a ceiling, for individuals.”

The American Association of Fund-raising Counsel is a 60-year-old trade association of fund-raising consulting firms. Its research arm, the Trust for Philanthropy, has been publishing “Giving USA” for 44 years. Raybin and her fellow fund-raising consultants are, naturally, on the lookout for new sources of gifts for their nonprofit clients.


Raybin interprets the 27 percent jump in giving to human services organizations as increased public awareness of community-based organizations like a local youth center or a neighborhood feeding program.

The category of environmental groups, which saw a 28 percent increase, includes zoos and animal shelters as well as big, well-known groups like the Nature Conservancy.

If any category could be called a loser in this flush year, it’s arts groups. Giving to such groups fell by about 2 percent, adjusted for inflation. Raybin said the very large, world-renowned cultural institutions like New York’s Metropolitan Museum or the Boston Symphony Orchestra are doing fine, as are small, very new, innovative arts organizations. It’s the mid-sized groups, she said, that are seeing a drop in giving _ groups like community theaters or established dance troupes. On the plus side, she said, it’s possible that they’re seeing more revenue from ticket sales.

Looking to the future, albeit a little morbidly, Raybin pointed to one more hopeful trend. Giving by bequest _ that is, remembering the Salvation Army or the American Cancer Society or whatever in your will _ continues to increase, rising by about 7 percent in 1998 to $24 billion.

DEA END CASEY

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