A recovery in charitable giving is likely to lag well behind an end to the recession, The Christian Science Monitor reports in an overview of recent findings on philanthropy.

Contributions dropped 2 percent from 2007 to 2008 and are likely to decline more steeply this year, according to the Giving USA Foundation. Another study by that organization concluded that, based on giving patterns in the aftermath of the Depression and the recession of 1973-75, inflation-adjusted giving won’t return to the 2007 level until at least 2012, even if the recession ended by this June.

Thomas Pollak, program director of the National Center for Charitable Statistics at the Urban Institute, in Washington, said a giving recovery will depend largely on the state of the stock market and on unemployment, key factors in giving by the wealthy and average-income Americans, respectively.

Read The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s Philanthropy 400 overview of 2008 giving and a Chronicle article on Giving USA’s findings.

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