Charitable Donations Top $260 Billion for 2005

The annual Giving USA Foundation survey is being released today, and includes some impressive and very positive numbers.

Overall giving increased by about $15 billion. Approximately half of that figure was dedicated to relief for Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. That hurricane relief collected a large amount, those who feared that it would cut into other donations can finally exhale knowing that giving increased in all areas.

Here are some of the increases by donor type:

• Individuals: up 6.4% to $199 billion
• Foundations: up 5.6% to $30 billion
• Corporations: up 22.5% to almost $14 billion

While corporations still only made up 5.3% of total giving, the growth this year was phenomenal. You can bet we'll be watching closely for next year's report to see if this is a blip on the radar due to hurricane relief, or if it's a permanent trend.

Be sure to note that the figure for Individuals still accounts for over 76.5% of total giving. And that does not include Bequests (figure not given in the preliminary release I saw) which are counted separately.

While this report is good news, overall, it's not so for everybody. When adjusted for inflation, Arts and Culture and Health organizations actually saw a decline in donations.

Tags: nonprofits, giving, charities, donations, fundraising, foundations, corporations