• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Americans give nearly $300 billion to charities

G

gwrober

Golden Member
Americans Give Nearly $300 billion to Charities; Set New Record

By VINNEE TONG, AP Business Writer
Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charitable causes last year, setting a new record and besting the 2005 total that had been boosted by a surge in aid to victims of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Wilma and the Asian tsunami.

Donors contributed an estimated $295.02 billion in 2006, a 1 percent increase when adjusted for inflation, up from $283.05 billion in 2005. Excluding donations for disaster relief, the total rose 3.2 percent, inflation-adjusted, according to an annual report released Monday by the Giving USA Foundation in Glenview, Ill. The report is researched and written by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University's Center on Philanthropy.

Giving historically tracks the health of the overall economy, with the rise amounting to about one-third the rise in the stock market, according to Giving USA. Last year was right on target, with a 3.2 percent rise as stocks rose more than 10 percent on an inflation-adjusted basis.

"What people find especially interesting about this, and it's true year after year, that such a high percentage comes from individual donors," Giving USA Chairman Richard Jolly said.

Individuals gave a combined 75.6 percent of the total. With bequests, that rises to 83.4 percent.

The biggest chunk of the donations, $96.82 billion or 32.8 percent, went to religious organizations. The second largest slice, $40.98 billion or 13.9 percent, went to education, including gifts to colleges, universities and libraries.

About 65 percent of households with incomes less than $100,000 give to charity, the report showed.

"It tells you something about American culture that is unlike any other country," said Claire Gaudiani, a professor at NYU's Heyman Center for Philanthropy and author of "The Greater Good: How Philanthropy Drives the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism." Gaudiani said the willingness of Americans to give cuts across income levels, and their investments go to developing ideas, inventions and people to the benefit of the overall economy.

Gaudiani said Americans give twice as much as the next most charitable country, according to a November 2006 comparison done by the Charities Aid Foundation. In philanthropic giving as a percentage of gross domestic product, the U.S. ranked first at 1.7 percent. No. 2 Britain gave 0.73 percent, while France, with a 0.14 percent rate, trailed such countries as South Africa, Singapore, Turkey and Germany.

Mega-gifts, which Giving USA considers to be donations of $1 billion or more, tend to get the most attention, and that was true last year especially.

Investment superstar Warren Buffett announced in June 2006 that he would give $30 billion over 20 years to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Of that total, $1.9 billion was given in 2006, which helped push the year's total higher.

Gaudiani said that gift reflects a growing focus on using donated money efficiently and effectively.

"I think it's also a strategic commitment to upward mobility exported to other countries, in the form of improved health and stronger civil societies," she said.

The Gates Foundation has focused on reducing hunger and fighting disease in developing countries as well as improving education in the U.S. Without Buffett's pledge, it had an endowment of $29.2 billion as of the end of 2005.

Meanwhile, companies and their foundations gave less in 2006, dropping 10.5 percent to $12.72 billion. Jolly said corporate giving fell because companies had been so generous in response to the natural disasters and because profits overall were less strong in 2006 over the year before.

The Giving USA report counts money given to foundations as well as grants the foundations make to nonprofits and other groups, since foundations typically give out only income earned without spending the original donations.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
Click to expand...

Of course, can't have a charity article without Warren Buffett and the Gates!
 
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: foghorn67
In Soviet Russia, charities donate to you!</end quote></div>

ROFL for once a recent good SR joke. :thumbsup:

Also that is not nearly enough considering our wealth.
 
Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
Originally posted by: foghorn67
In Soviet Russia, charities donate to you!
Click to expand...
ROFL for once a recent good SR joke. :thumbsup:

Also that is not nearly enough considering our wealth.
Click to expand...

I think ~$1000 per household is pretty decent, no?
 
Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: foghorn67
In Soviet Russia, charities donate to you!</end quote></div>

ROFL for once a recent good SR joke. :thumbsup:

Also that is not nearly enough considering our wealth.
Click to expand...

so? i really don't see what that has to do with it.

i would rather have man people give a smaller fraction then a few give more (wich is what would happen).
 
Just think, if we paid that in voluntary taxes instead, we'd never get the debt paid off and the money would just disappear!
 
Originally posted by: waggy
Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
Originally posted by: foghorn67
In Soviet Russia, charities donate to you!
Click to expand...

ROFL for once a recent good SR joke. :thumbsup:

Also that is not nearly enough considering our wealth.
Click to expand...

so? i really don't see what that has to do with it.

i would rather have man people give a smaller fraction then a few give more (wich is what would happen).
Click to expand...

What are "man people"?
 
Start saving up, Child's Play 2007 is less than 5 months away 🙂

Aside from CP, I donate to Northwest Harvest (supplies food banks in WA) and the Seattle Time Fund (kind of a United Way for WA charities).

I don't donate to:
- Police and fire scams. Even the legal ones spend 90% of the money they raise on "fundraising expenses" with a tiny, tiny bit of your donation going to actual charity work.
- "Army/Navy/AF Veterans' mumble-mumble Charity" - same scam as above
- Street bums. Many of them are just grifters to lazy for a real job, some get in a nice car and drive to their house after a day of playing homeless.
 
Originally posted by: RapidSnail
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: waggy
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: SVT Cobra
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: foghorn67
In Soviet Russia, charities donate to you!</end quote></div>

ROFL for once a recent good SR joke. :thumbsup:

Also that is not nearly enough considering our wealth.</end quote></div>

so? i really don't see what that has to do with it.

i would rather have man people give a smaller fraction then a few give more (wich is what would happen).</end quote></div>

What are "man people"?

Edit: Fixed quotes.
Click to expand...


got me. i dont remember typing it heh
 
In philanthropic giving as a percentage of gross domestic product, the U.S. ranked first at 1.7 percent. No. 2 Britain gave 0.73 percent, while France, with a 0.14 percent rate, trailed such countries as South Africa, Singapore, Turkey and Germany.
Click to expand...


burn
 
Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Start saving up, Child's Play 2007 is less than 5 months away 🙂

Aside from CP, I donate to Northwest Harvest (supplies food banks in WA) and the Seattle Time Fund (kind of a United Way for WA charities).

I don't donate to:
- Police and fire scams. Even the legal ones spend 90% of the money they raise on "fundraising expenses" with a tiny, tiny bit of your donation going to actual charity work.
- "Army/Navy/AF Veterans' mumble-mumble Charity" - same scam as above
- Street bums. Many of them are just grifters to lazy for a real job, some get in a nice car and drive to their house after a day of playing homeless.
Click to expand...

whats CP?

i agree with the police/fire/army/navy etc and bums.

we give to ST judes mainly.
 
I suppose that this is partly as a result of capitalism.

Theoretically, I guess, under Socialism, there would be no need to contribute to charities.
 
Originally posted by: waggy

--- Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Start saving up, Child's Play 2007 is less than 5 months away 🙂
Aside from CP, I donate to Northwest Harvest (supplies food banks in WA) and the Seattle Time Fund (kind of a United Way for WA charities).
...
---

whats CP?

i agree with the police/fire/army/navy etc and bums.

we give to ST judes mainly.
Click to expand...
CP = Child's Play = Penny Arcade's charity that gets gamers to donate new games and toys to children's hospitals for the kids being treated there to play.
 
Originally posted by: waggy
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: DaveSimmons
Start saving up, Child's Play 2007 is less than 5 months away 🙂

Aside from CP, I donate to Northwest Harvest (supplies food banks in WA) and the Seattle Time Fund (kind of a United Way for WA charities).

I don't donate to:
- Police and fire scams. Even the legal ones spend 90% of the money they raise on "fundraising expenses" with a tiny, tiny bit of your donation going to actual charity work.
- "Army/Navy/AF Veterans' mumble-mumble Charity" - same scam as above
- Street bums. Many of them are just grifters to lazy for a real job, some get in a nice car and drive to their house after a day of playing homeless.</end quote></div>

whats CP?

i agree with the police/fire/army/navy etc and bums.

we give to ST judes mainly.
Click to expand...

Interesting about the fire/police etc.. So what exactly happens here ? I mean, I get the money actually doesn't get to where its supposed to go, so where does it go ? Are these "charities" actually associated with the government agencies, or are they private parties?

I have gotten a couple solicitation calls from the local sheriffs, but I have never given them anything.
 
I gave a little to Child's Play last year, but most of my charity cash goes to the NRA and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation.
 
Originally posted by: zoiks
<div class="FTQUOTE"><begin quote>Originally posted by: GTaudiophile
And yet we are the most hated in the world...</end quote></div>

They hate us because of our government.
Click to expand...

Don't be naiive.
 
Originally posted by: Yreka
Interesting about the fire/police etc.. So what exactly happens here ? I mean, I get the money actually doesn't get to where its supposed to go, so where does it go ? Are these "charities" actually associated with the government agencies, or are they private parties?
Click to expand...
The people who do the calling are fund-raising companies who get the agreement of police or fire associations to raise money on their behalf.

Then the fund-raising company takes almost all of the money as "expenses," where the "expenses" include big salaries, company cars, nice houses, etc. with some tiny amount passed on to make it (barely) legal.
 
But, but, but all the elitists in P&N say Americans are fat, selfish greedy people and the US sucks!

This article can't be true! It must be a vast right wing conspiracy propaganda piece!

More shocking:

In 2000 total welfare spending by state and federal governments was about 430 billion. Now imagine if all services were left to charities rather than failed socialism as they were prior to the late 60s, and our tax burdens were adjusted accordingly. Just the loss of government waste would mean charities would be OVER funded.

Great article on welfare spending here:

http://www.heritage.org/Resear...elfare/Test030701b.cfm
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top