Fast Stats About Giving in America Today

By Ryan Scott

The annual Giving USA Foundation report has just been released, and the numbers tell an interesting story about corporate giving.  An alarming story, that is.

Here’s what you need to know:

• Americans gave $335.17 billion to charity in 2013.  Which sounds good until you read the fine print and understand that we’re barely keeping up as a percentage of the GDP.

• Charitable contributions in the U.S. grew 4.4 percent in 2013 but still haven’t rebounded to peak levels achieved before the economic recession.

• Individuals donated $240.6 billion to charities, up 4 percent from 2012.

• At 72% of all giving, individual giving represents the largest portion and fastest growing area of giving.

• The increase in individual giving is leading the charge to create a fourth straight year of growth in total giving.  

• Of four sources of giving that were assessed – individuals, foundations, bequests and corporations – every kind of giving rose in 2013 except for corporate giving. 

• Corporate giving fell by nearly 2 percent, to $17.9 billion.

The drop in corporate giving is troubling for all parties involved.  Nonprofits lean heavily on corporations for giving, and when numbers are down they must scramble for alternative sources of funding.  And companies are playing with their own bottom lines when they skimp on corporate philanthropy.  Now more than ever, employees are paying close attention to the philanthropic behavior of corporations and evaluating them accordingly.

As Greg Cantori, president and CEO of Maryland Nonprofits, observed to The Baltimore Sun, “It’s distressing because companies have been hanging onto cash and not giving up their capital base. It doesn’t make sense to me. They’re not hiring unless they absolutely have to.”

The good news is that companies are increasingly finding other ways to give back, especially in the form of …

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