Philanthropy Report: U.S. Charitable Giving Projected Grow 2015, 2016

“The Philanthropy Outlook provides a scientifically developed and tested look ahead at charitable giving based on the expertise of Indiana University and its Lilly Family School of Philanthropy,” said Donald M. Fellows, president and chief executive officer of Marts & Lundy. “We are pleased to present this outstanding new resource as part of our ongoing commitment to informing and serving nonprofit organizations and the philanthropic sector.”

The report’s research team employed econometric methodology to develop the projections for The Philanthropy Outlook. This type of methodology tests statistical relationships between variables. The researchers tested more than 16,000 combinations of economic variables that had the potential for influencing each source of giving, ultimately identifying 10 key predictors of giving.

The full report and a technical appendix on the methodology are at http://martsandlundy.com/the-philanthropy-outlook.

Charitable giving in the United States is expected to grow by 4.8 percent in 2015 and by an additional 4.9 percent in 2016, according to The Philanthropy Outlook, a new report researched and written by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The report is presented by Marts & Lundy, a leading fundraising and philanthropy consulting firm. Projected rates of change are in 2013 inflation-adjusted dollars.

The outlook projects that the expected growth of total giving in each of those years will exceed the estimated annualized average rate of growth in total giving in the years following the Great Recession (3.1 percent) and the estimated long-term average for the 40-year trend in total giving for 1973-2013 (3.8 percent).

The nonprofit sector has a significant impact on U.S. society and the economy. Approximately 1.4 million nonprofits provide 11 percent of U.S. jobs and 9 percent of total wages. Americans gave an estimated $335.17 billion—or 2 percent of U.S. GDP—to charity in 2013, according to Giving USA 2014. Yet few resources exist for anticipating and planning for the future of giving.

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Report: U.S. Charitable Giving Projected to Grow 4.8 Percent in 2015, 4.9 Percent in 2016