Give this percentage of your adjusted gross income -- or whatever best fits your finances.
Americans gave an estimated $427.71 billion to charity in 2018, Giving USA’s annual philanthropy report found this year, with total giving increasing 0.7% in current dollars over the previous year but decreasing 1.7% adjusting for inflation. The report, a joint effort by the Giving USA Foundation and Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, highlighted a “complex” giving environment shaped by tax-policy changes and stock-market volatility.
Copia Wealth Management & Insurance Services CEO Elisabeth Dawson suggested shooting for a middle ground of 4%, citing a Financial Samurai figure estimating that the average percentage of adjusted gross income donated to charity — that is, gross income minus certain adjustments — is 3% to 5%.And Chronicle of Philanthropy editor Stacy Palmer, pointing to a statistic that individual giving as a percentage of disposable income has long hovered around 2%, advised starting there.
But while “we all have an obligation to contribute to others,” Yarrow said, that contribution doesn’t always have to be monetary. “This is particularly true for those that are struggling with their own debt,” she said, suggesting donating time or energy instead. Palmer noted that some people may choose alternate, more informal ways of giving, like helping family members or a needy person next door — acts, in other words, that “might be just as legitimate a way to help others as writing a check.
Meanwhile, a 2017 Chronicle of Philanthropy analysis of IRS data found that the share of Americans who give to charity had declined: Just 24% of taxpayers reported a charitable gift in 2015, compared to the 30% to 31% norm from a decade earlier. A separate analysis released last month by the Lilly Family School and Vanguard Charitable found that the share of U.S. adults donating to charity declined substantially from 2000 to 2016: While around 66% of Americans gave money to charity in 2000, that share sat at 53% by 2016. Having remained steady until the Great Recession, the participation rate began tapering off before reaching a “turning point” of decline in 2010.
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