Americans Gave More to Charities in 2004 than in 2003

Hearts, not tax incentives, move Americans to generosity, says study

By Jeffrey Thomas
Washington File Staff Writer

 

Washington -- Americans are giving more generously to charities than ever, according to the October 27 issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which released figures for contributions to the 400 largest U.S. charities in 2004.

Compared with 2003, American gave 11.6 percent more in 2004 to these charities, the Chronicle said.  Contributions to these 400 charities account for more than a quarter of the $248.5 billion given to nonprofit groups in the United States in 2004.

The top fundraiser among U.S. charities was The United Way of America, to which Americans contributed $3.9 billion, followed by The Salvation Army ($1.5 billion) and Feed the Children ($888 million).

Other charities placing in the top 10 recipients of private donations were the American Cancer Society ($868 million); the AmeriCares Foundation ($801 million); the YMCA -- Young Men’s Christian Association ($773 million); Gifts in Kind International ($750 million); Lutheran Services in America ($723 million); Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund ($683 million); and Catholic Charities USA ($581 million).

The trend is continuing so far in 2005. Among the 79 charities providing fund-raising totals for 2005, the median increase for contributions over 2004 levels is 7.3 percent -- meaning that half increased their funds raised by more than 7.3 percent and half less than 7.3 percent -- according to the Chronicle.

Americans’ donations of time and money to charities reflect a preference for private giving, in comparison with Europeans’ tendency to give official development assistance a bigger role. Tax incentives in the United States encourage people to give; but many Americans are far more generous with their time and money than the value of the tax incentives can account for. (See related article.)

The 70 percent of American households that make charitable contributions give on average $1,800 per year, or 3.5 percent of income, according to Arthur Brooks, an associate professor at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Affairs whose research has shown that charitable Americans are more likely to be those who regularly attend a house of worship.

Individual Americans gave about $188 billion to charity in 2004, an increase of about 4.1 percent over 2003, according to figures released in June by the American Association of Fundraising Counsel (AAFRC) Trust for Philanthropy/Giving USA. When contributions from foundations, bequests and corporations are added, total private charitable contributions in the United States amount to more than $248 billion.

VOLUNTEERISM ALSO WIDESPREAD

The United States is also a nation of volunteers. In 2000, the most recent year for which data are available, 44 percent of Americans engaged in volunteer work. The dollar value of their efforts was estimated to be $240 billion. Volunteers and givers are in general the same people.

The Charitable Impulse, a newly released study by the independent think tank Public Agenda, found that Americans give because they are moved by a cause or a mission, and   see the act of volunteering as an indispensable part of their individual act of commitment.

“For many, the personal involvement, the personal interaction offered something beyond what money by itself could provide,” say the authors of The Charitable Impulse.

Most donors saw their charitable gift as “first and foremost about ‘helping people in need.’ Much of their charitable impulse was about giving to local religious groups, which were important intermediaries to a wider network of local, national and international causes,” the study reported.

About half of individual charitable contributions go to faith-based organizations, according to AAFRC.

Americans typically give based on what their hearts or instincts tell them about the people or groups involved. They also are skeptical of government involvement in, or oversight of, charity, and measure the trustworthiness of a charity in part by the extent to which volunteers are visibly donating time and effort, say the authors of The Charitable Impulse.

They state that ordinary Americans think of the nonprofit sector as focused on helping the unfortunate when a great deal of it in fact consists of human service organizations, arts groups, hospitals, universities, and operating and grant-making foundations.

The Charitable Impulse (PDF, 33 pages)is available on the Public Agenda Web site.

The United States is also the world’s largest contributor of official development assistance (ODA), providing $19 billion in 2004, or 24 percent out of the world total of $78.57 billion, according to preliminary data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. U.S. development aid increased 14.1 percent in real terms in 2004, while European Union ODA increased 2.9 percent in real terms.

Nonetheless, total U.S. government assistance is dwarfed by private charitable contributions and the value of volunteer work, which when added together amount to almost $500 billion.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov )