5 Interesting Facts from the Giving USA 2012 Report

The Giving USA 2012 report is out and it gives us a look at philanthropic trends from 2011.

Here are five interesting facts that I pulled from the report.

1. Giving by individuals, bequest, and family foundations amounted to 88% of total giving in 2011. This figure is one percentage point higher than in 2010.

2. Fundraising growth in the arts subsector was helped by an $800 million cash gift to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas from the Walton Family Foundation. This was the largest cash donation ever recorded to an art museum in the United States.

3. The estimated two-year change in charitable giving to religion-related organizations between 2009 and 2011 is a decline of 3.7%—the only cumulative drop in giving seen across the subsectors for these two years.

4. Since 1971, the average inflation-adjusted rate of change in total giving in the two years following each recession was 2.4%. For the years 2010 and 2011, the average inflation-adjusted rate of change in total giving was 1.1%, which is on the lower end of the rates of change for these years.

5. Giving to international organizations grew 240.0% in current dollars or 167.1% in inflation adjusted dollars between 2001 and 2011.