2005 Giving Marked by Disaster-related Spikes

A telephone survey, the results of which appeared in "Roper Reports Public Pulse" in November, found that almost half of Americans surveyed gave more to charity in 2005 than usual, largely due to natural disasters. Silvers says events that hit close to home usually generate the most action out of the American public, but he "wouldn't consider this a tipping point of a higher threshold of charitable giving in the country."