» Statistics on Giving

Total Giving: Total charitable giving by Americans in 2005 is estimated to have been $260.28 billion.
- Giving USA 2006, 45

Households: In 1998, 70 percent of American households gave. The average annual household contribution was $1,075.
- Independent Sector, The New Profit Almanac in Brief: Facts and Figures on the Independent Sector (Washington: Author, 2001), 3

Twentysomethings Give Less: “Only 3 out of 10 twentysomethings donated to a church in the past year, which is half the proportion of older adults (30 percent to 61 percent). (While twentysomethings generally have smaller income levels than their older counterparts, this measure has nothing to do with how much the person donates, but whether they contribute financially at all to churches).”
- George Barna, Twentysomethings Struggle to Find Their Place in Christian Churches, News release by Barna Research Group, September 24, 2003.

Giving by Class: The two groups in the United States that give the highest percentages of their income are the poor (those making less than $20,000 per year) and the rich (those making more than $100,000 per year). Middle-class Americans (those making between $40,000 and $100,000 per year) are the smallest percentage givers.
- Tim Stafford, The Anatomy of a Giver: American Christians Are the Nation’s Most Generous Givers, but We Aren’t Exactly Sacrificing, Christianity Today, May 19, 1997

Giving from Childhood: People who do not give philanthropically as youngsters are less likely to do so as they mature and age.
- AAFRC Trust for Philanthropy, Giving USA 2002: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2001, researched and written at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University (Indianapolis: Author, 2002), 67

* Statistics Courtesy of GenerousGiving.org

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