5 Interesting Facts from the Giving USA 2012 Report

The Giving USA 2012 report is out and it gives us a look at philanthropic trends from 2011.

Here are five interesting facts that I pulled from the report.

1. Giving by individuals, bequest, and family foundations amounted to 88% of total giving in 2011. This figure is one percentage point higher than in 2010.

2. Fundraising growth in the arts subsector was helped by an $800 million cash gift to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas from the Walton Family Foundation. This was the largest cash donation ever recorded to an art museum in the United States.

3. The estimated two-year change in charitable giving to religion-related organizations between 2009 and 2011 is a decline of 3.7%—the only cumulative drop in giving seen across the subsectors for these two years.

4. Since 1971, the average inflation-adjusted rate of change in total giving in the two years following each recession was 2.4%. For the years 2010 and 2011, the average inflation-adjusted rate of change in total giving was 1.1%, which is on the lower end of the rates of change for these years.

5. Giving to international organizations grew 240.0% in current dollars or 167.1% in inflation adjusted dollars between 2001 and 2011.

To get the full report go to the Giving USA 2012 website. It likely pays for itself in minutes.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Steve MacLaughlin

Steve MacLaughlin is the Vice President of Data & Analytics at Blackbaud and bestselling author of Data Driven Nonprofits.

MacLaughlin has been featured as a fundraising and nonprofit expert in many mainstream publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Los Angeles Times, The Boston Globe, The Chronicle of Philanthropy, USA Today, The NonProfit Times, Stanford Social Innovation Review, Bloomberg, and has appeared on NPR.

He is a frequent speaker at events including the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), Association for Healthcare Philanthropy (AHP), American Marketing Association (AMA), Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE), Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association (DMFA), Giving Institute Summer Symposium, National Association of Independent School (NAIS), Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC), Institute of Fundraising National Convention (United Kingdom), Civil Society Conference (Netherlands), International Fundraising Congress (Netherlands), Ask Direct Fundraising Summer School (Ireland), and a keynote speaker at several conferences across the social good sector.

Steve previously served on the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN) Board of Directors and is currently an adjunct faculty member at Columbia University.

He is a frequent blogger, published author of a chapter in the book People to People Fundraising: Social Networking and Web 2.0 for Charities, and is a co-editor of the book Internet Management for Nonprofits: Strategies, Tools & Trade Secrets. His latest book, Data Driven Nonprofits, became a bestseller in 2016.

Steve earned both his undergraduate degree and a Master of Science degree in Interactive Media from Indiana University.