Americans and American culture are too often
either over-idealized or over-demonized. The reality is that there are
both positive and negative aspects. Donors
contributed an estimated $295.02 billion in 2006, a 1 percent increase
when adjusted for inflation, up from $283.05 billion in 2005. Excluding
donations for disaster relief, the total rose 3.2 percent,
inflation-adjusted, according to an annual report released Monday by
the Giving USA Foundation at Indiana University's Center on
Philanthropy. And the lion's share of that comes from individual donors... "What people find
especially interesting about this, and it's true year after year, that
such a high percentage comes from individual donors," Giving USA
Chairman Richard Jolly said. Individuals gave a combined 75.6 percent of the total. With bequests, that rises to 83.4 percent. And it's not just the rich philanthropists who are getting in on the act... About 65 percent of households with incomes less than $100,000 give to charity, the report showed. "It
tells you something about American culture that is unlike any other
country," said Claire Gaudiani, a professor at NYU's Heyman Center for
Philanthropy and author of "The Greater Good: How Philanthropy Drives
the American Economy and Can Save Capitalism." Gaudiani said the
willingness of Americans to give cuts across income levels, and their
investments go to developing ideas, inventions and people to the
benefit of the overall economy. How does that compare to other countries? Gaudiani said
Americans give twice as much as the next most charitable country,
according to a November 2006 comparison done by the Charities Aid
Foundation. In philanthropic giving as a percentage of gross domestic
product, the U.S. ranked first at 1.7 percent. No. 2 Britain gave 0.73
percent, while France, with a 0.14 percent rate, trailed such countries
as South Africa, Singapore, Turkey and Germany.
Here's one of the big positive ones. Americans are givers.
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