Total charitable giving declined by 2% last year according to a recent report. Given the fact that Americans have seen their home values and stock profiles tank, this is actually much better than you might have expected.
Giving to religious groups, united way groups and voter registration drives actually went up.
Giving to the arts, health, environment, and education dropped by 5%. And giving to human service organizations dropped by 13%, which is especially hard since they are seeing increased need and government budget cuts all at the same time. This is something I'm going to keep in mind when I plan my giving for this year.
Overall, it is heartening to know that when times are tough people aren't cutting donations first. As this NPR report notes, now is the most important time to tell your donors about the good work that you are doing.
Listen to the NPR story.
Read the report. (PDF)
Showing posts with label giving. Show all posts
Showing posts with label giving. Show all posts
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Couple with small budget gives smart
This Sunday I was fortunate to catch Human Kind on my local NPR station. The program has been doing a stand-up job exploring the spiritual, emotional, and social aspects of charity and giving for a radio audience. This Sunday's broadcast, "Giving Back," features interviews with a number of people of various mean who dedicate a percentage of their income to help others.
I was especially touched by the story of a Boston couple who decided to plan to give 10% of their income to help improve early childhood education. These people don't make tons of money, and their annual gift amounted to about $5,000. Without any intermediary or support from an organization, the couple put together an application and distributed it to elementary school teachers and started doling out small grants for specific items that teachers needed to improve their teaching. Together they reviewed the applications and decided where to put their money. (Find a link to a free audio excerpt here)
This is precisely the kind of giving I'd love to foster with the "Two Cents Movement." Not everyone has the bandwidth or means to create a foundation. These people were under the average median income for the area, but they sat down, articulated what was important to them and why. They made up a budget, found out how much they could afford to give, and put together a plan for how to do it. They reached out to the group they wanted to target, solicited feedback and requests, and put their money to work in a way that was immediate and meaningful. They met the people they were helping, they could see their money at work, and their gift fit into their larger vision for making change. Bravo!
I was especially touched by the story of a Boston couple who decided to plan to give 10% of their income to help improve early childhood education. These people don't make tons of money, and their annual gift amounted to about $5,000. Without any intermediary or support from an organization, the couple put together an application and distributed it to elementary school teachers and started doling out small grants for specific items that teachers needed to improve their teaching. Together they reviewed the applications and decided where to put their money. (Find a link to a free audio excerpt here)
This is precisely the kind of giving I'd love to foster with the "Two Cents Movement." Not everyone has the bandwidth or means to create a foundation. These people were under the average median income for the area, but they sat down, articulated what was important to them and why. They made up a budget, found out how much they could afford to give, and put together a plan for how to do it. They reached out to the group they wanted to target, solicited feedback and requests, and put their money to work in a way that was immediate and meaningful. They met the people they were helping, they could see their money at work, and their gift fit into their larger vision for making change. Bravo!
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