The Nonprofit Sector
Quick Facts about the Nonprofit Sector - This is the National Center for Charitable Statistics website. There is a lot of statistical data located at this site.
2008 Charitable Giving - Type of Donated Funds
o Total giving for 2008 is estimated to be $307.65 billion. This is a decrease of 2.0 percent (-5.7 percent adjusted for inflation) compared with the revised estimate of $314.07 billion for 2007.
o This is the first decline in giving since 1987 and the second since Giving USA began in 1956.
o Individual giving, at $229.28 billion, includes estimated charitable deductions on tax returns filed for 2008 and an estimate of charitable giving by taxpayers who do not itemize deductions.
o The charitable bequest estimate of $22.66 billion reflects estimates for charitable deductions on estate tax returns filed in 2008 and giving by estates not filing federal estate tax returns.
o Individual giving and charitable bequests combined are estimated to be $251.94 billion (82 percent of the total).
o Foundation grantmaking reached an estimated $41.21 billion. Of that, about $18.5 billion is likely to be from family foundations, based on the percentage of family foundation grants in 2007 reported by the Foundation Center. Grantmaking by corporate foundations is in the estimate of corporate giving.
o Individual, bequest, and estimated family foundation giving combined are approximately $270 billion, or 88 percent of the total. Individual giving and family foundation giving added together are about $248 billion, which is approximately 81 percent of the total.
o Corporate giving is estimated to be $14.50 billion. This includes estimated grants made by corporate foundations.
2008 Charitable Giving - Recipients of Donated Funds
o Total charitable giving reached an estimated $307.65 billion. This includes contributions to nine types of charitable organizations, using nonprofit definitions from the National Taxonomy of Exempt Entities. It also includes grants awarded to individuals, which are reported here for the first time in Giving USA, as well as a portion of giving that could not be allocated to a recipient type.
o The estimated $106.89 billion to religion is 35 percent of the total giving. This is a slight increase from the share reported in 2008 for giving in 2007, when giving to religion was 33 percent of the total.
o Giving to education, estimated to be $40.94 billion and 13 percent of the total, is down from 14 percent reported in 2008 for giving in 2007.
o Human services charities received an estimated $25.88 billion in contributions in 2008, which is less than was estimated for 2007. The 2008 amount is rounded at 9 percent of total giving, down from nearly 10 percent reported in 2008 for giving in 2007.
o Health organizations also realized an estimated decline in giving to $21.64 billion in 2008. This puts giving to the health subsector at 7 percent of total giving, which is a decrease from nearly 8 percent reported in 2008 for giving in 2007.
o Giving to public-society benefit organizations is estimated to have grown in 2008, to $23.88 billion. This puts this subsector at 8 percent of total giving, up from 7 percent reported in 2008 for giving in 2007.
o Arts, culture, and humanities organizations reported a difficult year in 2008, and the estimate shows a drop in charitable giving to $12.79 billion. This subsector is now 4 percent of total giving, down from 5 percent reported in 2008 for giving in 2007.
o International affairs organizations saw large contributions in 2005, a decline in contributions in 2006, followed by growth in giving in 2007. The estimate for this year is $13.30 billion. This subsector remains at 4 percent of the total.
o Organizations in the environment/animals subsector received an estimated $6.58 billion in 2008, which reflects a drop in giving from 2007. This subsector received an estimated 2 percent of total giving, as it did in 2007.
o The Foundation Center tracks foundation grants made to individuals. This includes products distributed by operating foundations created by pharmaceutical companies, scholarships paid to individuals, and grants to artists. These grants are estimated to be $3.71 billion in 2008, which is 1 percent of the total.
o Gifts to grantmaking foundations (independent, community, and operating foundations) are estimated to be $32.65 billion, which is 11 percent of the total.
o A portion of giving is unallocated. This includes deductions carried over multiple tax years, gifts to new organizations and government agencies, and foundation grants to international recipients. The Foundation Center reports for 2007 that $1.9 billion was granted to organizations in other nations. It also includes donations to charitable trusts and differences in fiscal year and calendar year reporting. For 2008, this is estimated to be $19.39 billion or 6 percent of the total.