Charitable Giving Set Record in 2020: Report

Donations from bequests, which tend to fluctuate substantially from year to year, amounted to an estimated $41.2 billion in 2020, up 10.3% (9%) from 2019. 

Only giving by corporations fell in 2020, down 6.1% (7.3%) to $16.9 billion. According to the report, this type of giving is highly responsive to changes in corporate pretax profits and GDP, both of which declined in 2020.

Charitable Giving to Recipients

"[Human services organizations] might come to mind first when thinking about giving to meet the needs that arose in 2020," Josh Birkholz, vice-chair of Giving USA Foundation and chief executive of BWF, a fundraising consultancy, said in the statement. 

"However, nearly every category of charitable organization received gifts for COVID-19 relief and racial justice, which indicates the broad scale of the challenges faced in 2020 — as well as the complexity and responsiveness of the nonprofit sector overall."

Last year, giving to five of nine categories grew by 9% or more:

• Public-society benefit organizations: up 15.7% (14.3%) to $48 billion.
• Environmental and animal organizations: up 11.6% (10.3%) to $16.1 billion.
• Human services: up 9.7% (8.4%) to $65.1 billion.
• International affairs: up 9.1% (7.8%) to $25.9 billion.
• Education: up 9% (7.7%) to $71.3 billion.
• Foundations: up 2% (0.8%) to $58.2 billion.
• Religion: up 1% (-0.2%) to $131.1 billion.
• Health: down 3% (-4.2%) to $42.1 billion.
• Arts, culture and humanities: down 7.5% (-8.6%) to $19.5 billion.

Giving to individuals grew by an estimated 12.8% (11.5%) between 2019 and 2020, to $16.2 billion. According to the report, 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 was negative $22.1 billion in 2020. The report said 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 (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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