logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Nonprofit Newswire | Giving Hurt By Recession

Bruce S Trachtenberg
June 10, 2010
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

June 9, 2010; Source: Wall Street Journal | Nonprofits looking for a silver lining in the economic clouds will have to keep waiting a little longer—maybe even a few years more. Giving USA reported on Wednesday that charitable giving declined in 2009 by 3.6 percent to $303.75 billion. This was the second drop in as many years. See our take on the report.

Nancy Raybin, chair of the Giving Institute, the consulting arm of the Giving USA Foundation, says she expects giving to be down or flat for at least the next couple of years, and hopefully rebounding after that. Raybin attributes the drop to anxieties American’s feel in the wake of continued economic uncertainty. “It’s been a difficult year employment-wise for people who have lost their jobs to give, but we think others have stepped up their support to partly fill the gaps,” she said.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

While giving was down across the board, the Wall Street Journal noted that religious institutions, which usually do the best, had their first recorded decline since 1969. Similarly, other usually favored sectors saw giving shrink last year. For instance, education was down 3.6 percent, followed by arts, culture and humanities, which had a 2.4 percent drop. Two categories that saw modest rises as a percentage of total giving were human services (up 2.3 percent) and health organizations (3.8 percent).

Commenting on the way donors give during periods of economic uncertainty, Claire Costello, national foundation executive for Bank of America Merrill Lynch Philanthropic Management, said, “In a time of deep recessionary cutbacks, people tend to see the capital campaigns and endowment funds at universities and religious institutions as discretionary compared to basic needs like soup kitchens.”— Bruce Trachtenberg

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
How Policy Is Building a Social Economy in South Korea
Minsun Ji
Nonprofits and Movements: How Do the Two Relate?
Steve Dubb
Human-Centered Design for Behavioral Health
Sonia Sarkar
Pro-Black Organizations Lead the Way for Workplace Mental Health and Wellbeing
Nineequa Blanding
Sustainability Starts at Home: Growing Inner-City Food Ecosystems
Pastor Keith Davis
What Nigeria Can Teach the US About Food Insecurity
Chidinma Iwu

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
AOC’s “Tax the Rich” Dress Dazzles Met Gala, while...
Anastasia Reesa Tomkin
Foundation Giving Numbers for 2020 Show 15 Percent Increase
Steve Dubb
Strike MoMA Imagines Art Museums without Billionaires
Tessa Crisman

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.