Charitable giving statistics have been published annually since 1955 in Giving USA: The Annual Report on Philanthropy, researched and written by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and published by Giving USA Foundation. These figures are based on estimated charitable deductions on tax returns filed for 2009.

Charitable giving in the United States fell to an estimated $303.75 billion in 2009, a drop of 3.6 percent from a revised total of $315.08 billion in 2008. Because the overall economy experienced slight price deflation in 2009, the year-over-year inflation-adjusted decline was 3.2 percent. As in previous years, individual donors and charitable bequests were the main sources of contributions, at 83 percent of the total, or $251.21 billion.

A separate report from the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy (CWP) at Boston College found that individual charitable giving totaled $217.3 billion in 2009, down some $11.2 billion from the estimated $228.5 billion given by individuals in 2008. Last year's 4.9 percent decline in individual giving (also known as household giving) followed a similar decline in 2008, when individual giving was down 6 percent from the previous year. For 2010, individual giving totals are expected to range from $222 billion to $227 billion, a year-over-year increase of between 3 percent and 4.5 percent.

The report's findings are based on estimates produced quarterly by CWP's Individual Giving Model (IGM), which was launched last year to estimate how recent changes in financial resources affect the aggregate level of household giving.

See also our related Knowledge Base articles:

- How can I find out about the most generous philanthropists in the United States?
- Where can I find information on celebrity giving?
- How can I learn about researching and cultivating individual donors?

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