IU Study: Charitable giving in US on the rise

Charitable giving increased last year in the United States according to a report researched and written by the Center on Philanthropy at IU and published by the Giving USA Foundation. The report stated the jump in philanthropy was sparked in part by the recent series of major natural disasters.\nAmericans gave an estimated $260.28 billion in 2005, about a 3 percent increase from 2004, adjusted for inflation. The tsunami in South-East Asia at the end of 2004, Hurricane Katrina and the earthquake in South Asia in 2005 contributed to an increase in giving. Donations for disaster relief amounted to about $7.37 billion, about 3 percent of all total donations according to the Giving USA Foundation, a sector of the American Association of Fundraising Counsel. \n"It was disasters that really led the way for giving in 2005," said Richard T. Jolly, chairman of the Giving USA Foundation. "If it were not for disasters, giving still would have been strong, but somewhat flatter." \nThe Giving USA report includes contributions from individuals, bequests by deceased individuals, foundations and corporations. Individual giving is always the largest source of donations, according to Giving USA. In 2005 individuals contributed about $5.8 billion, about 79 percent of the total amount for disaster relief. Corporations gave about $1.4 billion, about 19 percent of total disaster relief. \nCorporate donations saw their largest increase last year, increasing by about 18.5 percent overall from 2004, adjusted for inflation. Individual donations increased 2.9 percent overall from last year, adjusted for inflation. \nPatrick Rooney, director of research at the IU Center on Philanthropy, said research methods were modified to account for the large number of natural disasters in 2004 and 2005. The survey for charitable giving in 2005 was lengthened with an added section for disaster relief. \n"We asked people to separate disaster receipts and philanthropy receipts," Rooney said. "Quite a few organizations filled out both sections."\nMelissa S. Brown, associate director of research at the Center on Philanthropy and managing editor of the Giving USA report, said the questions added to the survey about natural disasters had a direct impact on the response rate. Data from 7200 charitable organizations were used in the research. Twelve percent of the surveys were returned and 10 percent were fully completed. Only complete surveys were included in the research. \n"Nonprofits have higher priorities than filling out surveys," Brown said. "We would like the response rate to be higher." \nBased on analysis of IRS data, Brown said the results of the survey would be the same even with more responses. \n"A higher response rate would not create a dramatic shift one way or the other," Brown said. \nJolly said the data gathered by the report will be helpful for fund-raising practitioners to get a sense of trends in charitable giving and also for government policy makers, students of philanthropy and nonprofit organizations themselves. \nThe Center on Philanthropy is a part of the School of Liberal Arts at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis. \n"We've been extremely pleased by the quality of the writing and research and the methodology they've helped establish for the research," Jolly said.