It's true that Americans boosted charitable giving to a record $190 billion in 1999, but the heads of two groups say both individuals and foundations can do much more to help the sector, the Washington Post reports.
According to the new "Giving USA 2000" report issued this week by the AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy, all types of charitable contributions made last year increased by more than $15 billion over 1998 figures, and also increased for most types of causes, including church/religious gifts, educational causes, health and human services, and arts and cultural programs, to name a few.
Giving by individuals increased to $143.7 billion in 1999, representing a 7.2 percent boost from 1998 levels.
Non-corporate foundation giving reached nearly $20 billion last year, representing more than 10 percent of America's charitable donations.
Both of these categories could be greatly increased if wealthier Americans made more of a commitment to charity and if foundations were required to raise their minimum giving requirements, according to two groups contacted by the Post.
While individual giving accounted for 1.8 percent of personal income, that number could be doubled to at least 3.6 percent "without affecting wealth," Claude Rosenberg, leader of San Francisco-based Newtithing Group, told the newspaper.
Likewise, foundations should be giving much more because the current five-percent minimum annual requirement was put in place before double-digit annual investment returns were common, stated the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy's Neil Carlson.
The general consensus is the nation's record-setting economic growth is the main factor behind the philanthropic surge, but AAFRC Trust chairman George J. Ruotolo Jr. said charities and foundations themselves helped through better management.
"Nonprofit organizations became better stewards of philanthropic support, and were more responsive to the public's demand for accountability and information," Ruotolo told the Post.
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