News/Stats/Studies

Donations to charities are bouncing back after two years of recession, but the weight of philanthropic giving still rests on the shoulders of older Canadians.

Statistics Canada data released Monday show that tax filers claimed donations of just under $8.3-billion in 2010, up 6.5 percent from 2009. At the same time, the number of donors increased 2.2 percent to just over 5.7 million Canadians, but the average age of donors remains 53 — a figure that has remained relatively the same for the past decade.

People in the United States and United Kingdom overwhelmingly trust nonprofits and charities ahead of governments and corporations to create social change, yet most say they will make charitable donations at the same or reduced levels as last year, according to a new survey by Fenton and GlobeScan.

A trio of money managers who shared a $254 million Powerball jackpot kicked off the first of many charitable donations by splitting a $1 million gift among five veterans' service organizations.

The Putnam Avenue Family Trust announced that donations of $200,000 each were being given to the five groups for their work helping veterans and military members who have recently returned from deployments: the Bob Woodruff Foundation, Building Homes for Heroes, Services for the UnderServed, the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and Operation First Response.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation announced a $3 million commitment to provide capital for financing retail, production, processing and distribution of fresh food to reach lower-income communities in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans. The capital will be made available through the foundation’s mission-driven investment work in partnership with NCB Capital Impact (Capital Impact) of Arlington, Va., a Community Development Financial Institution.

An extra 1.1 million people made donations in the year to April but the median average monthly donation — which excludes the effect of the most wealthy philanthropists — fell from $18.85 to $17.28.

The Office for National Statistics surveyed more than 3,000 adults for the study.

It found the total value of donations was about $17.3 billion — the same as last year.

The survey was carried out by the ONS on behalf of for the Charities Aid Foundation and National Council for Voluntary Organisations.

To thank donors who paid for a new $32-million sports center, Bowling Green State University produced a video featuring some of those very same supporters.

The donors were game. They wore basketball uniforms and tried to bounce and spin a basketball, while acting tough on camera. The video, which was shown at the dedication of the Stroh Center in September, also featured a college student rapping about the donors’ big gifts, while showing the buildings and the basketball court named after them.

Despite the fact that students sign up en masse for social-entrepreneurship classes, intern at nonprofits and participate in charitable extracurricular activities, fewer than 5% of graduates from many top business schools take jobs in nonprofit organizations right out of school.

But these days, the numbers don't tell the whole story. Schools say that plenty of students are going on to do good works, just not in traditional nonprofit jobs. Instead, many students opt for social-responsibility positions at Fortune 500 companies or working at for-profit enterprises that explicitly address energy-access or economic-development issues.

Take a look at Forbes' 13th annual list of the 200 Largest U.S. Charities. They aren’t even 2/100th of 1 precent of the country’s 1.2 million tax-exempt organizations. Yet in their most recent fiscal year the Forbes Charity 200 collectively received $41 billion in gifts — one-seventh of all charitable contributions.

The rankings are based on the amount of private gifts (as opposed to government grants, fee for service or investment revenue) received in the latest fiscal period.

The number of college students who volunteer actually decreased from 2009 to 2010, but the total number of volunteer hours increased, a 2010 study conducted by Volunteering in America showed.

"This data show that the students who are volunteering are doing so more regularly or on a longer-term basis," says Heather Peeler, chief strategy officer for the Corporation for National and Community Service.

Some experts say a key reason that recent graduates are turning to longer volunteer opportunities could be the competitive job market and economic climate.

According to a report released by The Conference Board, the global business research and membership organization, humanitarian needs and the size of a company’s workforce in the local market are the top drivers of the allocation decisions on international charitable contributions made by U.S. corporations.

The 2011 Corporate Contributions Report discussed findings from a survey of 139 U.S.–based corporations conducted by The Conference Board between April and July 2011.