Giving USA report shows uptick in charitable giving for 2019
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/nba.30816 |
| Date | 01 August 2020 |
| Published date | 01 August 2020 |
AUGUST 2020 NONPROFIT BUSINESS ADVISOR
5
© 2020 Wiley Periodicals LLC • All rights reserved
DOI: 10.1002/nba
Industry News
Giving USA report shows uptick in charitable
giving for 2019
Donations from U.S.-based individuals, estates,
foundations and corporations climbed to an esti-
mated $449.6 billion in 2019, according to the latest
Giving USA report from the Giving USA Founda-
tion. That’s up from $431.4 billion in 2018, marking
a decent increase year-over-year after a relatively at
and disappointing 2018.
Other gures from the report also indicate a return
to good times. For example:
• Giving by individuals totaled an estimated $309.66
billion, rising 4.7% in 2019 (an increase of 2.8%, ad-
justed for ination). Giving by individuals achieved
the second-highest total dollar amount on record,
adjusted for ination, and was less than 70% of total
giving for only the second time ever.
• Giving by foundations increased 2.5% to an es-
timated $75.69 billion in 2019 (a at growth rate of
0.7%, adjusted for ination), reaching its highest-ever
dollar amount. Giving by foundations has grown in
nine of the last 10 years, and represented 17% of total
giving for the second year in a row, the largest share
on record, the report said.
• Giving by corporations is estimated to have in-
creased by 13.4% in 2019, totaling $21.09 billion (an
increase of 11.4%, adjusted for ination). According to
the report, this signicant growth is indicative of this
type of giving, which is highly responsive to changes
in corporate pretax prots and GDP, and its year-over-
year trend lines tend to be more turbulent as a result.
The only giving sector that didn’t log a year-over-
year increase was giving by bequest, which was an
estimated $43.21 billion in 2019, and was essentially
at with a growth rate of 0.2% from 2018 (a decline
of 1.6%, adjusted for ination).
According to representatives from the Giving USA
Foundation, the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
and others involved in the research, the positive eco-
nomic environment of 2019 played a big role in the
year’s growth in giving—especially as it compared to
the year before.
“What I think we are seeing is the impact of a surge
in giving at the end of 2017 as a result of the Tax Cuts
and Jobs Act and the implosion of the stock market at
the end of 2018 (along with a possible negative impact
of the raising of the standard deduction by TCJA) all
coming together to create a weaker result for 2018,”
said Rick Dunham, chair of Giving USA Foundation
and founder and CEO of Dunham + Company.
“And with such a strong economy in 2019, it re-
ally did drive greater giving. We know that the stock
market is a leading indicator for charitable giving
and that there is a correlation between the overall
economy and giving by corporations. So that is why
we saw a strong recovery in giving.”
Strong economic growth also led to increases in
giving to all but one of the nine major types of re-
cipient charitable organizations tracked in the report.
And six of those nine reached their highest ever totals
in 2019, adjusted for ination, the report said.
The big exception to this was giving to internation-
al affairs. According to Osili, this can be explained
by a relatively light roster of natural disasters for the
year (the Australian wildres notwithstanding).
“Giving to international affairs tends to be one of
the more volatile subsectors, since this subsector can
be strongly impacted by giving to disasters outside
the U.S. in a given year,” Osili said.
That said, Osili noted that the broader trend was
on the upswing for this sector as well.
“While giving to international affairs was at in
current dollars (and declined in ination-adjusted
terms) in 2019, the two-year growth rate is strongly
positive (13.4% in current dollars). Thanks to two
years of strong growth in 2017 and 2018, giving to
international affairs still reached the second-highest
ination-adjusted level ever in 2019.”
As for the lackluster gures for giving by bequest,
that’s chalked up to the unpredictability of death and
the legwork that accompanies settling estates.
“Bequests tend to uctuate year to year more than
other sources,” said Osili. “This frequently has to do
with the timing of when donors pass away and/or the
timing of when their estates close. Additionally, even just
a few very large bequests in a given year can have a large
effect on the rate of growth in giving in this category.”
“While the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did signicantly
raise the ling threshold for estates, which would
(See GIVING on page 8)
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