Charitable Giving Statistics

Sources of Charitable Giving

The largest source of charitable giving comes from individuals, at $211.77 billion in 2010, or 73% of total giving, followed by foundations ($41 billion/14%), bequests ($22.8 billion/8%), and corporations ($15.3 billion/5%).²

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Individual and Family Philanthropy

65% of households give to charity.¹
The average annual household contribution is $2,213 while the mean is $870.¹
According to Giving USA, American giving reached $290.98 billion in 2010. This reflects a 3.8% increase from the 2009 revised giving estimate of $280.30 billion.
Corporate giving rose 10.6% in 2010 to $15.29 billion.²
Foundation giving dropped less than one percent in 2010, but the cumulative change from 2008 to 2010 is 2.9%.⁴
The largest source of charitable giving comes from individuals, at $211.77 billion in 2010, or 73% of total giving, followed by foundations ($41 billion/14%), bequests ($22.8 billion/8%), and corporations ($115.3 billion/5%).²
In 2010, the majority of charitable dollars went to religion (35%), education (14%), grantmaking foundations (11%) and human services (9%).²
International Affairs organizations experienced the largest giving increase in 2010, receiving 15.3 percent more than the previous year.²
Charitable giving accounted for 2% of gross domestic product in 2010.²
Historically, charitable giving rises about one-third as fast as the stock market.³
It is estimated that between $6.6 trillion to $27.4 trillion in charitable bequests will be made between 1998-2052.⁵
It is estimated total charitable contributions will total between $21.2 to $55.4 trillion in between 1998-2052.⁵
By the year 2055, some $41 trillion will change hands as Americans pass on their accumulated assets to the next generation.⁵
98% of high net worth households give to charity.⁶
81% of high net worth donors cite “giving back to the community” as a chief motivation for giving.⁶
85% of high net worth donors give to organizations that provide for basic needs, 80% donate to educational organizations and 72% to the arts, culture and humanities organizations.⁶
In 2010, 140 of the largest charities reported receiving $12. billion in online donations, compared to the $887 million received in 2009.⁷

Charitable Organizations: the tax-exempt sector

In 2010 there were approximately 1,280,739 charitable organizations in the United States, a 3.4% increase from 2009, and a 48% increase over the last 10 years.²
There are approximately 355,000 religious congregations.⁸
The tax-exempt sector reported almost $1.9 trillion in revenue for 2009 and $4.2 trillion in assets.⁹
62% of tax-exempt organizations that filed a tax return in 2009 had assets under $100,000 with cumulative revenue of $32.3 billion. ⁹
Tax-exempt organizations with assets over $100 million make up 0.4% of the sector and reported revenue of $1.1 trillion in 2009. ⁹
Sources of revenue for tax-exempt organizations in 2008 were: Program Services and Contracts (69.26%); Contributions, Gifts, & Grants (22.75%); Dues, Net Sales, & Other Income (5%); Investment Income (2.71%); Net Special Events Income (0.28%).¹⁰
The number of foundations has increase 242% since 1980; 33.6% since 2000; and 6% since 2005.¹⁰
The tax-exempt sector employs 10.2 million people, accounting for 6.9% of the total U.S. workforce.¹⁰

Volunteering (Individuals)

63.4 million people volunteered in 2009, with a 26.8% volunteer rate.¹¹
The estimated dollar value of volunteer time is $20.85 per hour for 2009.¹²
With an estimated contribution of 8.1 billion donated hours of service in 2009, volunteer time is worth the equivalent of approximately $169 billion.¹³
The top four national volunteer activities are fundraising (26.6%), food collection or distribution (23.5%), general labor or transportation (20.5%), and tutoring or teaching (19.0%).¹³
The top four volunteer areas are for religious (35.6%), educational (26.6%), social service (13.8%), and health (8.3%) organizations.¹³

Donor-Advised Funds

More than 152,000 account holders in 2009.¹⁴
2009 donor-advised funds held approximately $25.2 billion in assets.¹⁴
Annual contributions into donor-advised funds were $5.9 billion in 2009.¹⁴
Donors recommended grants of $6.0 billion to charities in 2009.¹⁴
Average account size was $152,365 in 2009.¹⁴

Supporting Organizations

There are more than 45,000 Supporting Organizations operating in the United States.¹⁵
Total assets of $76-billion.¹⁵

Other Charitable Giving Vehicles

According to an analysis by the Internal Revenue Service, in 2009 there were:

96,248 Charitable Remainder Unitrusts with total assets of $99.4 billion
19,241 Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts with total assets of $9.1 billion.
6,521 Charitable Lead Trusts with total assets of $20 billion
1,488 Pooled Income Funds with total assets of $1.65 billion

Sources

The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University
Giving USA 2010
Giving USA 2009
The Foundation Center
Center on Wealth and Philanthropy
The 2010 Bank of America Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University
The Chronicle of Philanthropy
Congressional Research Service
The Urban Institute, National Center for Charitable Statistics, from the Internal Revenue Service, Exempt Organizations Business Master File (2010, Jan)
The Urban Institute, National Center for Charitable Statistics
Bureau of Labor Statistics
Independent Sector
The Corporation for National and Community Service
National Philanthropic Trust - Donor Advised Fund Market Report 2010
Congressional Research Service