Americans’ proclivity to give has never been higher after two consecutive years of record-setting charitable donations, according to a report out Tuesday from the Giving USA Foundation and Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
Researchers estimate charitable giving totals in 2015 soared to $373.25 billion – up about 4 percent from the previous record set in 2014. Bequests and donations from individuals, corporations and foundations all hit never-before-seen levels last year, helping U.S. donations eclipse $1 billion per day for the first time in history.
“If you look at total giving by two-year time spans, the combined growth for 2014 and 2015 hit double digits, reaching 10.1 percent when calculated using inflation-adjusted dollars,” W. Keith Curtis, president of consulting outfit The Curtis Group and chairman of the Giving USA Foundation, said in a statement. “Americans are embracing philanthropy at a higher level than ever before.”
Corporate donations eclipsed $18.4 billion in 2015, while bequests ballooned to $31.8 billion. And charitable foundations – like the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Ford Foundation, two of the largest such bodies in the country – distributed nearly $58.5 billion.
But it was individual donors who accounted for the lion’s share – nearly 71 percent – of 2015’s charitable giving. Individuals forked over nearly $264.6 billion to causes and organizations of their choice last year, equating to about $820 in donations for every U.S. citizen, based on the Census Bureau’s population projections.
