The American People are Extraordinarily Generous

I was chatting with a liberal friend of mine who stated that charitable giving was way down in the United States. Something about greedy people wanting and buying bigger and bigger houses for themselves.

I googled “United States charitable giving” and found this press release from Giving USA Foundation Charitable Giving Rises 6 Percent to More than $260 Billion in 2005
It includes:
■ “Americans gave total contributions of $260.28 billion for 2005, growth of 6.1 percent (2.7 percent adjusted for inflation).”

■ “Relief contributions are estimated to be roughly 3 percent of the total. An additional $253 billion in gifts supported more than 1.4 million charities including religious congregations, schools, clinics, arts groups, food banks, and more.”

■ “Giving USA reports giving from four sources of contributions—individual (living) donors; bequests by deceased individuals; foundations; and corporations.”

■“Individual giving is always the largest single source of donations. It rose by 6.4 percent. (2.9 percent adjusted for inflation) to an estimated $199.07 billion. It accounts for 76.5 percent of all estimated giving in 2005.”

See Wall Street Journal Opinion Journal article Sweet Charity, The American people are extraordinarily generous
“Americans give to private charities because they recognize that these initiatives work best.”