With the tanking of the economy, who would have thought that giving would fall only 2% in 2008 from the previous year? People gave more than $307 billion in 2008 and more than $300 billion two years in a row — that’s great news according to Nancy Raybin the chair of the Giving Institute, whose Giving USA Foundation reports on current trends on giving to charities. Here’s the breakdown: charitable donations to religious groups, groups supporting other non- profits such as the United Way and voter registration groups saw the most increase sometimes by over 5%. The groups that dropped by at least 5% were those which gave to the arts, health, education and the environment. The groups that suffered most -by almost a 13% drop were those providing aid to the disadvantaged.
Are our giving trends reflective of the direction our society is heading in shaping its core values or are they just reflective of the better marketing strategies on the part of the charities that earn the most?
Good News: We are a nation characterized by giving generously to charity
Bad News: We need to prioritize giving to the disadvantaged above giving to the arts - as important as the arts are to our culture.
I think the Obama administration would be wise to increase the tax break for charitable contributions in order to encourage (and reward) higher donations especially in these challenging times.
This has always been a nation of charitable people. Hopefully once everyone has gotten over the shock of the change in their pockets, the giving will be back to where it was, especially in relation to the disadvantaged.