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Giving by individuals

Giving by individuals reached an estimated $229.28 billion in 2008. This is the lowest value (adjusted for inflation) for giving by individuals since 2003 when individual giving was $212.92 billion.

This is a decline of 2. 7 percent (- 6. 3 percent adjusted for inflation) from the revised estimate of $235.58 billion for 2007.

Individual giving estimated for 2008 is 75 percent of total estimated giving.

Individual giving includes everything that qualifies under tax law as a charitable contribution. Gifts range from a small donation of household articles to an entity like Goodwill to the largest amounts given to foundations or other charitable organizations.

 

Giving USA findings In 2006, the most recent year with final IRS data, 30 percent of individual tax returns itemized charitable contributions. These account for roughly 83 percent of total individual giving in 2006.1

The Giving USA estimate uses the historical record of itemized contributions from 1948 to 2006 from the Internal Revenue Service. The estimated change in itemized giving from 2007 to 2008 is developed using the historical relationship between changes in giving and the variance in personal income, the stock market, and the itemized deductions that taxpayers take for charitable gifts in a given year. 2 For 2008:

The change in giving based on the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, which fell 40 percent adjusted for inflation in 2008, would be a decline of more than $9 billion, if the stock market were the only driver of charitable contributions.

However, personal income and recent giving history are also associated with giving. The negative impact from the stock market was counteracted by a small increase in personal income this year and by recent growth in contributions. 3

Taking all of the factors into account, the estimated change in itemized contributions is a drop of $7.69 billion.

None of the estimates reflect changes in tax rates because there are no differences in tax rates for 2008 compared with 2007.

After the itemized giving amount is estimated, we add an estimate of giving by non-itemizing households using data from the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS), which is a module of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. The estimate of charitable contributions for 2008 includes an increase of $1.39 billion in donations from households that do not itemize contributions on tax returns. This estimate includes a projection that