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November 21, 2008

Even in Economic Crisis, Americans Continue to Give to Charity

If history is a guide, the current economic crisis will not quell the generosity of Americans, who have increased their donations to charity in 39 of the past 40 years, reports the Associated Press.

That statistic, which comes from the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, is accompanied by another that finds that 69 to 72 percent of people give regularly, the news agency reports.

Some charities, such as World Vision and the American Heart Association, even expect an uptick in giving this year.

“At a time when people have things and they know that other people don’t, Americans’ generosity wins out,” Justin Greeves, senior vice president of Harris Interactive, which regularly polls Americans about their charitable giving, tells the news service.

For more about trends in giving during hard times, see The Chronicle’s special Web section.

(Free registration is required to view the AP article on the Washington Post site.)

Friday November 21, 2008 | Permalink

Comments

1. How to balance these insights with stories from The Business Times that find giving is dropping and, in some cases, has been since Spring?

   http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2008/11/17/story13.html

   http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2008/11/17/focus2.html

   — Lucy Bernholz    Nov 21, 01:31 PM    #

2. Charities that are overly dependent on corporate and foundation giving will feel the pinch of our economic woes more that those nonprofits that have segmented, donor-centered, individual giving programs. Individuals will sacrifice to help a good cause — corporations typically will not.

   — Kevin Feldman    Nov 21, 02:15 PM    #

Commenting is closed for this article.

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