Charitable Giving Statistics

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
• Americans gave $298.3 billion in 2011. This reflects a 3.9% increase from 2010.²
• Corporate giving held steady in 2011 at $14.55 billion.²
• Foundation giving increased in 2011 to $41.67 billion--a 1.8% increase from 2010.⁴
• In 2011, the largest source of charitable giving came from individuals at $217.79 billion, or 73% of total giving; followed by foundations ($41.67 billion/14%), bequests ($24.41 billion/8%), and corporations ($14.55 billion/5%).²
• In 2011, the majority of charitable dollars went to religion (32%), education (13%), human services (12%), and grantmaking foundations (9%).²
• International Affairs organizations experienced the largest giving increase in 2011, receiving 7.6% more than the previous year, making the two-year increase more than 15%.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 and $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 2011, there were approximately 1,080,130 charitable organizations in the United States, a 15.6% decrease from 2010.²
• 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 increased 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

• There were more than 161,873 donor-advised fund accounts in 2010.¹⁴
• Donor-advised funds held nearly $30 billion in assets in 2010.¹⁴
• Annual contributions into donor-advised funds were $7.77 billion in 2010.¹⁴
• Donors recommended grants from donor-advised funds totaling $6.18 billion to charities in 2010.¹⁴
• Average donor-advised fund account size was $185,087 in 2010.¹⁴

Supporting Organizations

• There are more than 45,000 Supporting Organizations operating in the United States.¹⁵
• Supporting organizations have combined total assets of $76-billion.¹⁵

Other Charitable Giving Vehicles

• There were 93,831 Charitable Remainder Unitrusts with total assets of $91.58 billion in 2010.¹⁵
• There were 16,937 Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts with total assets of $7.49 billion in 2010.¹⁵
• There were 6,609 Charitable Lead Trusts with total assets of $19.34 billion in 2010.¹⁵
• There were 1,410 Pooled Income Funds with total assets of $1.28 billion in 2010.¹⁵

Sources

1. The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University
2. Giving USA 2012
3. The Foundation Center
4. Center on Wealth and Philanthropy
5. The 2010 Bank of America Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University
6. The Chronicle of Philanthropy
7. Congressional Research Service
8. The Urban Institute, National Center for Charitable Statistics, from the Internal Revenue Service, Exempt Organizations Business Master File (2010, Jan)
9. The Urban Institute, National Center for Charitable Statistics
10. Bureau of Labor Statistics
11. Independent Sector
12. The Corporation for National and Community Service
13. National Philanthropic Trust - Donor Advised Fund Market Report 2011
14. Congressional Research Service
15. Internal Revenue Service - Statistics of Income Tax Statistics: Split-Interest Tax Statistics