Wednesday (6/9) on Bloomberg.com, Patrick Cole writes, “Giving to arts and culture in the U.S. in 2009, the second full year after the recession began, fell 2.4 percent from 2008 to $12.3 billion, according to a report published by the Giving USA Foundation. That decline was less than the 6.4 percent drop to $12.8 billion in 2008, the Glenview, Illinois-based organization shows. Charitable giving to all categories of charities and nonprofits declined 3.6 percent in 2009 to $303.6 billion from $315 billion, the study said. … Experts had anticipated a much sharper drop last year amid the worst recession since the Great Depression. ‘It’s unfortunate that giving fell at all, but it could have been worse,’ Patrick Rooney, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, said in a phone interview. … For the past two years, total charitable giving in the U.S. has surpassed the $300 billion mark, ‘a testimonial to Americans’ commitment to giving,’ Rooney said. Corporate giving in 2009 rose 5.5 percent from the previous year to about $14.1 billion because ‘many companies boosted their in-kind donations,’ which aren’t affected as much by a recession, the study said.”
Posted June 9, 2010
