July 19, 2010 — Total charitable contributions from American individuals, corporations, and foundations fell to $303.75 billion in 2009, down 3.6% from a revised total of $315.08 billion for 2008, according to a recent report from the Giving USA Foundation, which has tracked giving trends for more than half a century.

When adjusted for inflation, the decline represented a 3.2% from 2008, not as severe as the decline found in 1974, also a very difficult year of recession, when inflation-adjusted giving fell by 5.5%.

Individual giving fell an estimated 0.4% in 2009, to $227.41 billion. Many news reports and polls of the nonprofit sector suggested that individual contributions increased toward the end of the year, as stock market indices rose and as media coverage highlighted the needs faced by charitable organizations.

Charitable bequests were estimated to be $23.8 billion, a decline of an estimated 23.9% in 2009. This reflects the unusually high level of bequest giving announced in 2008 by the Internal Revenue Service in its data released in late 2009, the Foundation said. The 2009 estimate is $0.58 billion above the 2007 estimate, an increase of 2.5%.

“Even in a time of enormous economic upheaval, such as we saw in 2009, Americans continued to be generous to charitable causes,” said Giving USA Foundation Chair Edith H. Falk. “While overall giving declined, many donors—including individuals and foundations—made special efforts in 2009 to respond to greater humanitarian needs.”

She added that, in addition to support from individuals and foundations, some nonprofits received exceptional support from the corporate sector, which included billions of dollars’ worth of in-kind donations, particularly from information technology firms and pharmaceutical manufacturers.

The national results from Giving USA reflect all charitable giving to all charitable organizations in the United States. The national estimates do not show changes that any one organization or any one geographical region or city might have observed; they calculate total giving by more than 75 million households across the United States, more than 1 million companies, an estimated 120,000 estates, and about 77,000 foundations. The gifts go to more than 1.2 million IRS-registered charities and an estimated additional 350,000 American religious congregations.

Foundation grantmaking by private, community, and operating foundations was $38.44 billion, falling by 8.9%, but a less severe drop than foundations anticipated when the Foundation Center surveyed them early in 2009.

Corporate giving rose to an estimated $14.1 billion, up 5.5%. This unexpected bounce takes corporate giving to within 1% of its pre-recession level. According to at least two reports (Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy and Community Foundation of Silicon Valley), corporations increased their in-kind donations, which are less affected by recessions. This shift explains at least some of the growth, the Foundation said.

Giving Estimates by Type of Recipient

The subsectors that saw declines in giving tended to be those that are more likely to receive gifts through capital campaigns, contributions to endowments, and donations of art and property. These include education, grantmaking foundations, arts and culture organizations, and public-society benefit organizations, which include freestanding donor advised funds such as Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund or Schwab Charitable Fund, and Jewish endowments.

Here are subsector highlights:

• Giving to religion, at 33% of total giving, remains the largest share of all contributions, with an estimated $100.95 billion. The estimated decline in giving to religion was 0.7% in 2009.

• Giving to education declined to an estimated $40.01 billion, a drop of 3.6% in 2009. This is the second consecutive year that giving to education has declined. Educational organizations received an estimated 13% of the total.

• Giving to foundations dropped to $31 billion, a decline of 8%. This includes private, community and operating foundations. This subsector received an estimated 10% of the total.

• Giving to human services is estimated to be $27.08 billion, an increase of 2.3%. This subsector received an estimated 9% of the total.

• Giving for health also shows an estimated increase, to $22.46 billion, or growth of 3.8%. This subsector received 7% of the total.

• Giving for public-society benefit organizations declined an estimated 4.6%. This subsector received an estimated $22.77 billion in 2009 and was 8% of the total, when rounded.

• Giving to arts, culture and humanities organizations dropped an estimated 2.4%, to $12.34 billion. This subsector was 4% of the 2009 total.

• Giving to international aid (which includes relief, development and public policy activities) increased an estimated 6.2%, reaching $8.89 billion. This was 3% of the total.

• Giving for environment/animal-related organizations rose 2.3%, to an estimated $6.15 billion. This was 2% of the total.

• Giving to individuals includes grants from foundations to benefit named individuals. Most often, these are gifts of medications to patients in need and are made by operating foundations created by pharmaceutical manufacturers. These gifts are estimated to have remained relatively steady in 2009, at $3.5 billion or 1% of the total.

Giving USA’s annual estimates are based on econometric studies using tax data, government estimates for economic indicators, and information from other research institutions. Sources of data used in the estimates include the Internal Revenue Service, Bureau of Economic Analysis, Foundation Center, Independent Sector, Council for Aid to Education, National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute, and National Council of Churches of Christ.