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5. Giving trends in 2022
Each year Giving USA Foundation, The Giving Institute, and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy partner to produce the Giving USA report, which summarizes American’s generosity. According to the Giving USA 2022 report, the level of charitable giving remained essentially flat in 2021, dropping 0.7 percent after adjusting for inflation, to $484.85 billion. This was surprisingly good news considering that 2020 had seen a sizeable increase of 8.1 percent over 2019 to $488.1 billion due to the pandemic and racial-equity efforts.
Giving USA 2022 Report
| Category | Bequests | Foundations | Corporations | Individuals | Total giving |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amount (billions) | $46.01 | $90.88 | $21.08 | $326.87 | $484.85 |
| Percent increase over 2020 | -7.30% | 3.40% | 23.80% | 4.90% | 4.00% |
| Percent of total | 9.50% | 18.70% | 4.30% | 67.50% | 100.00% |
The Giving USA 2022 report revealed the following trends:
- Individual giving as a share of overall charitable giving is shrinking. In 2021, individual giving accounted for 67% of overall giving, while forty years ago, it accounted for 83% of all charitable giving.
- Donations of $450 million or more (megagifts) accounted for 5% of all individual giving, up from approximately 3% in 2020.
- Foundations accounted for nearly 20% of all giving, as compared to 6% in 1981.
- Giving to public society benefit groups – the “Giving USA” category of nonprofits that includes donor-advised funds – increased 35% since 2019.
- Giving to all nonprofits increased 7.4% since 2019.
- Giving to foundations increased 10% from 2019 to 2021.
- Total giving in current dollars represented 2.1 percent of the U.S. gross domestic product, a level of giving that has been constant for twenty years.