BENEFIC DONATIONS IN US increased 3.3%, to reaching 593,000 million US dollars in 2024, driven by the strength of the economy.
The annual report of the Giving USA Foundation, prepared in collaboration with the Lilly Family Family School of the University of Indiana, revealed that this was the second highest level recorded after adjusting inflation.
Donations grew to the fastest pace since 2021, when Covid-19 pandemic led many Americans to perform greater donations than usual. It was also the first time since the growth of donations exceeded inflation.
As two of the main researchers of the report, we observed numerous signals of healthy growth of beneficial donations in 2024. Our data shows that the solid economy, which grew 2.8% in 2024, promoted donations of individuals and companies and allowed the foundations to maintain the historically high level of donations that have registered in recent years.
The good performance of stock markets also contributed in 2024, consumer confidence was generally positive, personal income increased and inflation continued to moderate.
Donations to almost all the beneficial categories that we monitored increased.
Individual donors continued to contribute most of the country’s beneficial donations. The 392,000 million dollars that donated to beneficial organizations represented two thirds of the total of the year. Donations of natural persons grew by 5.1% compared to 2023, a faster pace than that of all donations.
Corporate donations increased even faster, reaching a record of 44,000 million dollars.
This growth reflects high profits before taxes obtained by companies in 2024 and the trend of companies to donate a greater proportion of profits before taxes in recent years.
For example, companies generally donated less than 1% of the profits before taxes between 2004 and 2018. However, our research team began to observe that corporate donations represented 1% or more in the 2019 data. This was also observed in 2024, when corporate donations represented 1.1% of the profits before taxes.
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Corporate donations, the greatest increase during 2024
Corporate philanthropy grew more than 50% since 2019, a trend that coincided with the increase in donations in kind of insulin and other pharmaceutical products. It is estimated that pharmacists obtained 24,000 million dollars in these donations in 2024, 41% more than in 2019.
Certainly, corporate donations represented only 7% of total donations in 2024.
Meanwhile, subsidies granted by Foundations exceeded 100,000 million dollars per third consecutive year. Almost 1 out of $ 5 donated to beneficial organizations came from a foundation in each of those years.
Donations of the foundations in the five years that ended in 2024 were greater than in any other period since Giving USA records this data. However, donations to foundations were practically unchanged between 2023 and 2024, around 110,000 million dollars.
About 8% of all donations made in 2024 came from legacies included in wills, as in 2023. The legacies totaled 44,000 million dollars, a 4.4% decrease when adjusting to inflation. However, the total donated by legacies varies considerably from one year to another.
Sectors where donations increased
Donations to most of the nine beneficial categories that Giving USA tracked increased. The only exception: donations to churches and other religious institutions decreased by 1%. However, religious donations were maintained, by far, as the main category, followed by human services and education.
Religious causes received 2 % of all donations, a total of 147,000 million dollars. Donations to non -profit organizations of human services, such as food banks and shelters for homeless, increased considerably during pandemic. They currently represent about 14% of all donations. In 2024, these gifts totaled 91,000 million dollars.
Donations to education, which consist mainly of donations to universities, have tended to grow at a slower pace than donations in general in recent years.
However, donations for education rebounded until a historical maximum in 2024, with an increase of almost 10% compared to the previous year. These donations have grown at an accelerated pace during the last decade, with an increase of more than 22% between 2015 and 2024. The 88,000 million dollars in donations received for education in 2024 were the third largest of the nine categories we analyzed.
Several other categories also reached historical donations in 2024: health, with 61,000 million dollars; Art, culture and humanities, with 25,000 million dollars; and environment and animals, with 22,000 million.
The increase in donations for most non -profit organizations, backed by strong growth in donations from individuals and companies, indicates that the charity closed 2024 in a relatively solid position.
*Jon Bergdoll He is an associate director of data associations at the Filantropy School of the Lilly family, University of Indiana; Christina daniken She is an associated researcher in philanthropy and editor Chief of Giving USA, University of Indiana.
This note was originally posted in The Conversation.
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