Giving USA Releases Report on 2011 Philanthropy

The Giving USA Foundation and its research partner, the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, has released Giving USA 2012: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the year 2011. Below are some key findings and information from the 57th annual report.

Key Findings:
Total estimated charitable giving in the United States increased 4.0% in 2011 from 2010 to $298.42 billion in contributions (0.9% adjusted for inflation). It is worth noting that The Blackbaud Index of Charitable Giving estimated that giving was up 4.2% in 2011 as compared to 2010.

Giving by individuals rose an estimated 3.9 percent in 2011 (an increase of 0.8% adjusted for inflation) to $217.79 billion in contributions.

Giving by bequest increased an estimated 12.2% (an 8.8% increase adjusted for inflation) to $24.41 billion in 2011. The share of giving by bequest from itemizing estates was 85% of the total.

Giving by foundations increased 1.8% to an estimated $41.67 billion in 2011, according to figures provided by the Foundation Center. However, adjusted for inflation, giving by foundations declined 1.3% in 2011.1

Giving by Sector Findings:
Giving to religion decreased an estimated 1.7% from 2010, totaling $95.88 billion in 2011. Inflation-adjusted giving to the religion subsector is estimated to have declined 4.7% from 2010.

Giving to education is estimated to have increased 4.0% between 2010 and 2011 to $38.87 billion in contributions. Adjusted for inflation, giving to educational organizations was flat at a 0.9% increase.

Giving to human services rose an estimated 2.5% in 2011 compared with 2010, totaling $35.39 billion. Adjusted for inflation, giving to human services organizations is estimated to have held flat between 2010 and 2011 (a -0.6% change).

Giving to health organizations is estimated to have increased 2.7% in 2011 from 2010 (-0.4 percent adjusted for inflation), with $24.75 billion in total contributions. The 2011 Million

Giving to public-society benefit organizations increased by an estimated 4.0% in 2011 to $21.37 billion from 2010. Adjusted for inflation, giving to public-society benefit organizations held flat at 0.9% growth between 2010 and 2011.

Giving to arts, culture, and humanities is estimated to have increased 4.1% in 2011 from 2010, with $13.12 billion in total contributions. Adjusted for inflation, giving to the arts, culture, and humanities subsector is estimated to have increased 1.0%.

Giving to international affairs is estimated to be $22.68 billion in 2011, an increase of 7.6% from 2010. Adjusted for inflation, giving to international affairs organizations is estimated to have risen 4.4 percent in 2011 from 2010.

Donations to the international affairs subsector amounted to 8% of all donations across the subsectors in 2011, three percentage points higher than reported in Giving USA 2011.

Giving to environmental and animal organizations is estimated to have increased 4.6% from 2010 to $7.81 billion in total contributions. Adjusted for inflation, donations to the environment/animals subsector are estimated to have increased 1.4% from 2010.

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.