Americans' Charitable Giving in 2018 Was Virtually Flat

Pasic noted, however that charitable giving is multidimensional, and it is hard to disentangle the degree to which each factor may have affected donations.

Donors and Recipients

Giving by foundations set a record in 2018, reaching its highest-ever dollar amount even when adjusted for inflation, $75.9 billion, and growing to its largest share of total giving to date, 18%.

Individual giving decreased as a percentage of total giving to 68%, down two points from 2017, despite achieving its third-highest total dollar amount on record, adjusted for inflation, $292 billion.

Giving by corporations increased by 5.4% last year to $20 billion — an inflation-adjusted increase of 2.9%. The report noted that this giving is highly responsive to changes in corporate pretax dollars and GDP, and its year-over-year trend lines tend to be more turbulent as a result.

Bequests to charity totaled an estimated $39.7 billion in 2018, a 0.0% increase from 2017 — down by 2.3%, adjusted for inflation.

Charitable sectors experienced uneven growth in current dollars last year, with two recipient categories growing, three staying relatively flat and four declining. The reported noted that it is not unusual for strong growth in giving one year to be followed by slower growth or a decline the following year, especially in terms of inflation-adjusted dollars.

Here's how charitable sectors fared last year:

• Religion: $124.5 billion, -1.5% (inflation-adjusted -3.9%)
• Education: $58.7 billion, -1.3% (inflation-adjusted -3.7%)
• Human services: $51.5 billion, flat (inflation-adjusted -2.7%)
• Foundations: $50.3 billion, -6.9% -inflation-adjusted -9.1%)
• Health: $40.8 billion, flat (inflation adjusted -2.3%)
• Public-society benefit: $31 billion, -3.7% (inflation-adjusted -6%)
• Arts, culture, humanities: $19.5 billion, flat (inflation-adjusted -2.1%)
• International affairs: $22.9 billion, +9.6% (inflation-adjusted +7%)
• Environment, animal groups: $12.7 billion, +3.6% (inflation-adjusted +1.2%)

In addition, giving to individuals, just 2% of total giving, decreased by an estimated 2.6% (4.9% in inflation-adjusted dollars) in 2018, to $9.1 billion. The report said most of these donations are in-kind gifts of medications to patients in need, made through the patient assistance programs of pharmaceutical companies' operating foundations.

Unallocated giving totaled $6.5 billion in 2018. According to the report, this amount can be considered the difference between giving by source and use in a particular year.

It includes the difference between itemized deductions by individuals and households carried over from previous years. The tax year in which a gift is claimed by the donor, i.e., carried over, and the year when the recipient organization reports it as revenue, the year in which it is received, may be different.

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