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The Giving USA Foundation™ has just released Giving USA 2006, which presents data on
contributions to nonprofit organizations in 2005. Formerly known as the AAFRC Trust for
Philanthropy, the Giving USA Foundation found that total giving to charitable organizations and institutions
was $260.28 billion for 2005. This figure represents a 6.1% increase over 2004 estimates.
When adjusted for inflation, total giving in 2005 grew 2.7% over giving in 2004. This rise in
giving figures was in large part attributed to major natural disasters both here and abroad from
December 2004 to October 2005. Donations to disaster relief alone were estimated to be at least
$7.37 billion in 2005, approximately 3% of overall giving. However, Giving USA points out that 59%
of responding organizations—the highest percentage since 2000—reported an increase in their
charitable gifts even before including disaster relief contributions.
Of the $260.28 billion in total giving, 76.5% ($199.07 billion) was in the form of gifts from living individuals. This marks an increase of
6.4 % over the 2004 figure of $187.92 billion.
Gifts from foundations total $30 billion (11.5% of total giving), while donations from
corporations grew to $13.77 billion, which is a 22.5% increase over 2004 numbers.
Charitable bequests, on the other hand, declined in 2005 to $17.44 billion, a 5.5% drop over
2004 totals. As The Sharpe Group observed in the May 2006 issue of Give & Take (see “Great
Expectations?” on page 1), lower death rates were blamed for the drop in bequest dollars. For
this article and recent articles on the same subject published in Trusts & Estates magazine, see
www.sharpenet.com/resources/.
Editor’s note: Robert F. Sharpe, Jr. serves on Giving USA’s
Advisory Council on Methodology, and The Sharpe Group is a member of the Giving Institute—Leading Consultants to
Non-Profits, formerly known as the AAFRC.
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