THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

                        Philanthropy Fact Sheet
              Prepared by the Council of Economic Advisers
                              October 1999

• Philanthropic giving in 1998 was estimated to be $174.5 billion.
• Individuals accounted for 85 percent of all contributions in 1998, while corporations and foundations accounted for 5 percent and 10 percent of contributions, respectively. Contributions by individuals have increased 31 percent since 1995, while foundation giving has increased by over 50 percent.
• There has been a recent resurgence in philanthropy as a percentage of GDP.
• Total giving represented just over 2 percent of GDP in 1970. However, it dropped in the 1970s to just 1.7 percent in 1979 and remained fairly constant at about 1.75 percent in the 1980s and early 90s. But since 1995, giving has risen sharply to just over 2 percent in 1998 -- back to the levels of 30 years ago.
• Religion was by far the single largest recipient of contributions, at 44 percent of the total last year. Donations to religion averaged about 50 percent of total contributions from the early 1980s to the mid-1990s, but have fallen as a share of the total since 1995.
• Other organizations have received substantial increases in donations since 1990. These include education (up 59 percent), environmental organizations (up 69 percent), public-benefit organizations such as civil rights groups and community development organizations (up 77 percent), and gifts to foundations (up 254 percent).
• Families at every level of income (except the very top) are about equally generous: The 95 percent of families with incomes under $100,000 all tend to contribute roughly 1.5 percent to 2 percent of their incomes, on average -- even the very poor. Those with incomes above this level tend to contribute a higher percentage of their incomes.
• Elderly households (over age 65) at every level of income are generous givers. They tend to make larger inter vivos contributions in terms of both donation size and as a percentage of their incomes than non-elderly households.
• Wealthy households give a disproportionate share of individual contributions. The 20 percent of families with incomes of $60,000 or more in 1994 gave 67 percent of all individual contributions that year. The 4.3 percent of families with incomes above $125,000 gave 46 percent of the total.
• An estimated $12 trillion in wealth will be transferred over the next 20 years. This will result in an estimated $1.7 trillion in charitable bequests. Over the next 55 years, the wealth transfer is estimated to be $41 billion, resulting in $6 trillion in charitable bequests.

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