Charitable Giving Up, Points to Better Economy

Charitable giving by individuals and companies hit $290 billion last year, a jump of $10 billion. The 4 percent rise comes after two years of declines, another sign that the economy may be recovering, The Washington Post reported.

Overall, corporate donations rose nearly 11 percent, according to statistics provided by Giving USA Foundation, a group that has tracked donations since 1956. Arabella Philanthropic Investment Advisors’ Eric Kessler tells the Post, “Giving’s back. Philanthropists are feeling more comfortable with the economy.”

Kessler said several of his clients at Arabella, which oversees about half a billion dollars in charitable giving, had scaled back their charitable work or put off new projects during the downturn but are now giving again and expanding their efforts.

Corporate pretax profits were up 37 percent last year, a fact that Patrick Rooney, executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, pointed to as a reason for the increase in corporate giving. Much of the corporate giving in 2010 went to disaster relief for such countries as Haiti, and by large drug companies giving medicine to those who couldn’t afford it, the Post reported.