Charitable Giving Statistics

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Individual and Family Philanthropy

• The average annual household contribution is $2,974.¹

• Americans gave $373.25 billion in 2015. This reflects a 4.1% increase from 2014.²

• Corporate giving in 2015 increased to $18.46 billion - a 3.9% increase from 2014.²

• Foundation giving in 2015 increased to $57.19 billion - a 6.5% increase from 2014.² 

• In 2015, the largest source of charitable giving came from individuals at $268.28 billion, or 71% of total giving; followed by foundations ($57.19 billion/16%), bequests ($28.72 billion/9%), and corporations ($18.46 billion/5%).²

• In 2015, the majority of charitable dollars went to religion (32%), education (15%), human services (12%), grantmaking foundations (11%), and health (8%).²

• International affairs experienced the largest giving increase in 2015, receiving 17.5% more than the previous year.²

• Charitable giving accounted for 2.1% of gross domestic product in 2015.²

• 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

• 98.4% of high net worth households give to charity.⁶

• 63% of high net worth donors cite “giving back to the community” as a chief motivation for giving.⁶

• Last year, the greatest percentage of high net worth households gave to educational (85%) and basic needs (81%) organizations, followed by 70% to the arts, 67% to health related organizations, and 67% to religious organizations.⁶

• In 2013, 100 of the largest charities reported receiving 13% more in online donations, and 25 of these charities collected more than $10 million each in 2013 from online gifts.⁷

Charitable Organizations: the tax-exempt sector

• In May 2015, there were approximately 1,521,052 charitable organizations in the United States.⁹

• There are an estimated 316,532 congregations in the United States in May 2015.⁹

• In 2012, public charities reported over $1.65 trillion in total revenues, $1.57 trillion in total expenses, and over $3 trillion in total assets.⁹

• Sources of revenue for tax-exempt organizations in 2012 were program service revenues, including government contracts and fees (73%), contributions, gifts, & government grants (21%) and lastly, dues, special event income, rental income and net sales from goods (6%).⁹

• There were 86,192 foundations in the United States in 2012, a 5.3% increase from 2011.³

Online Giving

• In 2013, Online giving grew by 13.5%, while overall charitable giving grew by 4.9%.¹⁷

• Of all charitable giving in 2013, online giving accounted for 6.4%.¹⁷

• Small nonprofits grew their online giving the most.¹⁷

• Faith-based nonprofits had the biggest increase in online giving.¹⁷

Volunteering (Individuals)

• 64.5 million adults volunteered 7.9 billion hours of service, worth an estimated value of $175 billion.¹¹

• The estimated dollar value of volunteer time is $22.55 per hour for 2013.¹²

• The top four national volunteer activities are fundraising or selling items to raise money (25.7%), food collection or distribution (23.8%), general labor or transportation (19.8%), and tutoring or teaching (17.9%).¹³

• The top four volunteer areas are for religious (34.2%), educational (26.5%), social service (14.4%), and health (8.0%) organizations.¹³

Donor-Advised Funds

• There were 217,367 donor-advised fund accounts in 2013.¹⁴

• Donor-advised funds held $53.74 billion in assets in 2013.¹⁴

• Annual contributions into donor-advised funds were $17.28 billion in 2013.¹⁴

• Donors recommended grants from donor-advised funds totaling $9.66 billion to charities in 2013.¹⁴

• Average donor-advised fund account size was $241,217 in 2013.¹⁴

Supporting Organizations

• There are more than 57,000 Supporting Organizations operating in the United States.¹⁵

• Supporting organizations have combined total assets of $76-billion.¹⁶

Other Charitable Giving Vehicles

• There were 91,244 Charitable Remainder Unitrusts with total assets of $85.2 billion in 2012.¹⁶

• There were 14,616 Charitable Remainder Annuity Trusts with total assets of $6.4 billion in 2012.¹⁶

• There were 6,498 Charitable Lead Trusts with total assets of $23.7 billion in 2012.¹⁶

• There were 1,324 Pooled Income Funds with total assets of $1.25 billion in 2012.¹⁶

Sources

1. The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University

2. Giving USA 2015

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 2014 Bank of America Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University

7. The Chronicle of Philanthropy

8. Congressional Research Service

9. The Urban Institute, National Center for Charitable Statistics

10. Bureau of Labor Statistics

11. Independent Sector

12. The Urban Institute

13. The Corporation for National and Community Service

14. National Philanthropic Trust - Donor Advised Fund Market Report 2014

15. The Urban Institute, National Center for Charitable Statistics, US Non Profit Sector

16. Internal Revenue Service - Statistics of Income Tax Statistics: Split-Interest Tax Statistics

17. The Charitable Giving Report, derived from The Blackbaud Index