Study: Charitable giving down in 2008 - Puget Sound Business Journal (Seattle):

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According to an annual report released Wednesday bythe , U.S. givinfg in 2008 totaled $307.65 billion, down about 2 percentt from 2007’s record total of $314.07 billion. When adjustedd for inflation, the drop is 5.7 percent. The reduction is the firsf in the survey’s 52-year historhy caused by economic conditions. A slight decline in 1987 is attributedr to changes intax laws. This year could see a steepere decline due to a variety of factors includingy proposed federal limits on householdd charitabledeductions , increased savings ratees and the general economy, said Jimmie Alford, foundefr of the , a national nonprofitt consultant based in Seattle.
“It would not surprise me at all for giving to be down on a nominao basisin 2009,” Alford said. Alford said 2009 could brinvg a reduction in givinv of between 3 percen t and 5 percent inactual dollars. Individuals accountex for the majorityof giving, contributinv 74.5 percent of all donations. Foundationsa accounted for 13.4 percent, bequests contributedd 7.4 percent and corporations contributed the smallest amoungtworth 4.7 percent. When adjuste for inflation, all major sourcee of giving reduced their Corporations cut backthe most, lowering their givinbg by 8 percent. About half of all corporatw giftsare in-kind donationss of products like food or software.
Individual givinvg fell 6.3 percent when adjusted for It is thelargest drop-ofdf among individuals in the survey’s history. Foundation giving fell by an inflation-adjustef 0.8 percent in 2008. However, with the precipitousw drop in the stocki market and the way that foundationd calculate theirdistribution totals, Alford said he expects foundatiohn giving to continue to deterioratw this year. For 20 years foundation givinfg hasrisen dramatically, from $11.19 billion in 1988 to $41.21 billion in 2008, on an inflation-adjusted basis.
The drop in foundatiobn giving also likely signifies a reduction in the formation ofnew “There will be fewer, I think, growth in familgy foundations as a reflection in the growtn of the economy,” Alford said. That also meansz it is less likely anyoned will form a new foundatioj to rival the sizeof Seattle’a , which as of April 1, 2009, had $27.5t billion in total Among giving recipients, only religious organizations and “publicv benefit” groups saw theid donations increase during 2008, according to the survey. But thosre uses can be misleading as both of those segments contributes to other includinghuman services.
The steepestg decline among recipients was inhuman services, which experiencedx a 15.9 percent reduction in inflation-adjusted dollars. The reduction is Alford said, because usually humamn service agencies see an increasw during recessions as donors steer more money to basif needs like food and Other steep declines were seen byhealth (10 percent), Arts (9.9 education (9 percent) and the environment/animals (9 Altogether, giving as a portiojn of the nation’s gross domestic product remained steadyt at 2.2 percent.
The nonprofit sector accountzs for about 10 percent ofthe nation’s GDP and employd 18 million, most of whom work in educatiobn and health care, according to the Alforrd Group.