2016 Charitable Giving By the Numbers: Another Record High

Giving USA recently released its Annual Report on Philanthropy, and the numbers look promising with regard to fundraising from individual donors.

Of the estimated $390.05 billion contributed to U.S. charities in 2016, donations from individuals rose 4% over the previous year. This overall giving figure represents a 2.7% increase versus $379.89 billion in 2015.

Researched and written by the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Giving USA is the longest-running report of its kind.

The report looks at donations to nine major types of organizations from four donation sources: individuals, foundations, estates, and corporations. For just the sixth time in 40 years, giving to all nine categories increased.

Individual donors showed the highest increase (3.9%) and represented 72% of all donations, for a total of $281.86 billion. This lends credence to the idea that micro-donations are a growing source of charitable gifts.

“This report tells us that Americans remained generous in 2016, despite it being a year punctuated by economic and political uncertainty,” said Aggie Sweeney, CFRE, chair of Giving USA Foundation and senior counsel at Campbell & Company. “We saw growth in every major sector, indicating the resilience of philanthropy and diverse motivations of donors.

Giving to religion and faith-based organizations totaled $122.94 billion, an increase of 3%. Faith-based giving accounts for the majority of overall donations (32%).

• View a summary of the report.
• Get the entire report and view the full-size infographic.

Giving USA 2017: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2016, is a publication of Giving USA Foundation, 2017, researched and written by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Available online at www.givingusa.org.