June 26, 2011

Giving’s Recovery Lacks Momentum, Say Charities

Outlook for Giving in 2011 Is Lackluster, Charities Say 1

Andy Dean/City Year

Nonprofits like City Year are doing more to thank loyal donors. Here, a guest at a City Year Boston fund-raising event is welcomed by the charity’s volunteers.

By Holly Hall and Heather Joslyn

The slow economic recovery could spell trouble for charity fund raising until at least 2016, researchers said last week when they released “Giving USA,” the annual estimate of American philanthropy.

Already, the bad economy has challenged fund raisers. Contributions rose just 2.1 percent in 2010 after two consecutive declines of 6.2 percent in 2009 and 7 percent in 2008, the deepest drops in the history of the 56-year-old study by Indiana University’s Center on

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