Fidelity Charitable Donors Support Charities Through Volunteer Work, Record Grant Recommendations

Younger donors, 50 years old or less, were most likely to have volunteered (89 percent) but least likely to have committed more than 100 hours (25 percent). However, 43 percent plan to increase their volunteering in the next few years. This indicates donors in this cohort are balancing their significant interest in giving back with commitments to other important priorities, such as starting or raising a family. In fact, younger donors are three times more likely (34 percent) than older donors to seek opportunities to volunteer together with their families.

For more details on the 2015 Fidelity Charitable Volunteer Study, download the executive summary at http://www.fidelitycharitable.org/giving-strategies/grant-making/volunteering-and- philanthropy.shtml?immid=PR_001.

Grants Rose 24 Percent in 2014

During 2014, Fidelity Charitable made more than 620,000 donor-recommended grants totaling nearly $2.6 billion, a 24 percent increase from 2013.

• Grants ranged from $50 to multimillion-dollar grants, with an average grant size of $4,100, a slight increase from 2013.
• Donors recommended 277 grants sized $1 million or more totaling $612 million, an 18 percent increase, year-over-year, in the amount given through grants of that size.
• Donors used their donor-advised funds to support planned giving and urgent needs. For example, donors supported Ebola relief efforts by drawing on the "ready reserves" in their donor-advised funds to recommend nearly $5.5 million through more than 1,000 grants designated to the cause. Granting began in the spring but the majority, 74 percent of grants and 84 percent of the grant dollars, were recommended in the fourth quarter.

Since inception in 1991 through the end of 2014, Fidelity Charitable has expended 63 percent of its contributions as grants as it helped donors support more than 190,000 charities through nearly $19 billion in grants.