The following listed below offer recent studies on giving and volunteering. For additional information on those topics, visit Independent Sector's Giving and Volunteering Clearinghouse.
GIVING
Total Giving. The AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy, in partnership with the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, releases an annual report, Giving USA, on donations to charitable causes. The 2007 edition (based on data from 2006) estimates that charitable giving has reached $295.02 billion.
Individual Giving. Using data from the University of Michigan’s Panel Study of Income Dynamics, researchers at The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University have investigated household giving in America. Among other findings, the report shows that in 2002, approximately 67% of all households donated to charity and the average total household donation was $1,872.
Foundation Giving. The Foundation Center releases a variety of reports on international and domestic grantmaking. According to the center's recent study, Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates: Current Outlook, giving by U.S. foundations in 2006 rose to $40.7 billion.
Corporate Giving. The Conference Board issues an annual report examining contributions by the nation's largest corporations. The 2006 study, which compared donations in 2004 and 2005, found that total U.S. giving by companies and corporate foundations rose to by 18% in their matched case sample. The report cites Giving USA in saying that total corporate giving in 2005 was $13.8 billion.
VOLUNTEERING
Volunteering in America. The Corporation for National and Community Service report, Volunteering in America: 2007 State Trends and Rankings in Civic Life, provides a national, regional and state analysis of volunteering trends. The report, based on data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Population Survey (below), gives a detailed breakdown of America’s volunteering demographics, habits, and patterns by state and region and provides the agency’s first-ever ranking of civic engagement by state through the Civic Life Index. The Corporation also created “Resources for Retention,” a free online toolkit with resources and effective practices for volunteer retention.
National Volunteering Rates. The Bureau of Labor Statistics issues an annual study, based on data collected as a supplement to its Current Population Survey, on volunteer rates in the U.S. The most recent report examines volunteering from September 2005 to September 2006.
Youth Volunteering Rates. In early 2005, the Corporation for National and Community Service, in collaboration with Independent Sector and the U.S. Census Bureau, conducted a nationwide survey on teenage volunteering. The results of this survey are being compiled into the Youth Helping America series, which so far has profiled the effects that social institutions and service learning have on youth volunteering.
The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning & Engagement issued a report in August 2004 analyzing youth volunteering rates by state for 2002 and 2003.
When reading each report, be sure to learn about its methodology, including any changes from one year to the next, since different methodologies can yield different results.
