Charity Donations Hit 20-Year Low

The charity hurt the most last year was the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, whose donations plunged by 40.3%. The Chronicle attributed the dramatic dip to the fact that the Ohio-based organization relies heavily on stock gifts, which were not very popular last year.
Other top-ranking charities experiencing a decline include Food for the Poor (ranked sixth), whose contributions fell by more than 27%; the American Cancer Society (ranked eighth), which saw an 11% decrease; and the Y (ranked 10th), whose contributions decreased  17.2%.

Notably, many of these thriving charities deal in donated goods, not dollars. AmeriCares Foundation, a Virginia-based nonprofit, for example, receives donations of mostly food, medicine and clothing, as does the Oklahoma-based Feed the Children. Both of these charities managed to increase their donations by more than a $1 billion.  

The four charities in the top 10 who reported an increase in contributions last year were: Catholic Charities USA, which ranked third overall and experienced a 66% rise in donations; the AmeriCares Foundation, which ranked fourth and experienced an 18.1% rise; Feed the Children, ranked fifth with a 1.2% rise; and World Vision, which ranked ninth and reported a 4.5% increase in charitable donations.

You can check Philanthropy.com for a list of the full rankings.

Are you considering making a donation? Check out this MainStreet article that breaks down the 20 Worst Charities. You can also read about these 7 Wonderfully Wacky Charities, whose honorable intentions are off the beaten path.

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