The Giving USA Annual Report has become the ultimate resource for tracking and understanding donor giving each year. In 2021, individuals, bequests, foundations, and corporations reportedly gave an estimated $484.85 billion to U.S. charities. Globally, giving totaled approximately $750 billion, demonstrating the generosity of United States. Here’s the report breakdown for 2021: ↑ Giving by individuals totaled an estimated $326.87 billion ↑ Giving by foundations totaled an estimated $90.88 billion ↑ Giving by corporations totaled an estimated $21.08 billion Individuals are the top donors to charities (above foundations and corporations), comprising almost 70% of all charitable giving in 2021 and giving in amounts from $1 to millions of dollars … sometimes billions. What this tells us is that as fundraisers, our biggest return on investment is creating relationships with individual donors. Let’s take a look at those top donors:
A new research report conducted by WealthX studied UHNW philanthropists to understand their motivations for giving. The top reasons include:
Motivations for giving by the ultra-wealthy have been influenced by high-profile initiatives, such as the Giving Pledge and the Founders Pledge. Visible individual donations to particular causes also have the potential to inspire other segments of society to commit to greater philanthropic engagement. The “Philanthropy 50” List is an annual ranking of top U.S. donors compiled by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. While their reasons for giving are inspiring and diverse, at first glance it appears that in 2021 85% of donations from “Philanthropy 50” donors ($23.8 billion) were given to a relatively narrow slice of the charitable sector: colleges and universities, hospitals, foundations, and donor-advised funds. . This was a shift from the previous year’s giving. In 2020, the world-wide pandemic influenced a dramatic shift in giving by the “Philanthropy 50”, moving their charitable funds away from the traditional institutions that they had supported year-after-year towards addressing the crisis at hand. Large gifts were made to food banks, racial-justice groups, historically Black colleges and universities, and human-service organizations. According to Giving USA, this surge in support of diverse, new causes does not appear to have continued into 2021 and the “Philanthropy 50” have reverted back to their pre-pandemic giving habits. However, if we delve deeper into the gifts made by the “Philanthropy 50”, we see continued support of pandemic-related causes. The motivation is simply masked when the donation is made to a traditional large institution. Case in Point: a $20.5 million gift made by William Ackman and Neri Oxman (#4 on the List) to the Mount Sinai Health System is more than just a significant gift to a large healthcare institution, it was a donation to back low-cost saliva-based Covid-19 tests for students and staff at New York schools. Additionally, other heavy hitters from the List have continued to support pandemic-related causes. Twitter co-Founder Jack Dorsey (#7 on the List) donated $68.5 million to pandemic relief and social-justice efforts, followed by roughly $18.3 million to girls' health and education programs and $11.2 million to universal basic income groups. Michael Bloomberg (#3 on the List) announced his foundation would give $750 million over five years to bolster and expand charter schools throughout the country, primarily in places where students and their families have been hit hard by the pandemic and where many receive free or reduced-price lunches and most are children of color. Missing from the List is MacKenzie Scott, “Philanthropy 50” #10’s former wife. She donated at least $2.8 billion to charities last year in a covert and anonymous fashion. In 2019, a new shell company was quietly set up in Delaware called Lost Horse. Soon, representatives from Lost Horse were calling nonprofits around the country to facilitate multimillion-dollar donations from an anonymous giver, culminating in her largest known gift to-date: $436 million to Habitat for Humanity. Her generosity in 2021 would have placed her as #3 on the “Philanthropy 50” List. Ms. Scott’s extraordinary leap into philanthropy, donating over $12 billion in just under three years, has far exceeded her ex-spouse’s lifetime charitable giving of $2.6 billion (as calculated by Forbes in January 2022). Ms. Scott’s giving falls in line with a new trend in philanthropy: more women of means are engaging in significant philanthropic giving. The proportion of ultra-wealthy women philanthropists is on a gradual upward trend. This shift is taking place as a result of changing cultural and societal attitudes, growth in female entrepreneurship, and an increasing focus on gender equality issues. The Giving USA Report and the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s reporting of the “Philanthropy 50” List paints a picture of wealthy, single men and married couples giving to traditional large institutions. As we delve deeper into these donor’s motivations and the trends that are occurring within philanthropy, the picture becomes less traditional and more forward-thinking. My prediction for 2022 is that we will see more wealthy, single female philanthropists on the “Philanthropy 50” List. There is no doubt in my mind that the newly-divorced Melinda French Gates (#1 on the List with husband, Bill) will become one of the top philanthropic leaders in the U.S. on her own and that Ms. Scott will continue her quiet, anonymous yet significant giving. Female philanthropists are going to be more likely to give to diverse causes, moving away from the large, traditional institutions. My hope is that Giving USA will need to create new categories in their annual report in order to truly reflect the causes that are being supported by the world’s
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The Fitz team had an amazing time hosting the champagne bar for Women Give San Diego's Holiday Party and 10th Anniversary Celebration.
Cheers to 10 years of incredible work! 🥂 2020 is just around the corner! With the end of the year also comes one of the best fundraising opportunities. Check out this great example of a year end appeal letter from Monarch School. Here's what's great about Monarch School's year end appeal letter:
Year end giving is big and you have an incredible opportunity to tap into your supporter's generosity. When your hand is out asking for donations, it is always nice to have a beautiful letter to express why you need donations and how a donor can help your organization. These beautifully crafted letters take time and creativity to author. To give you a head start, I’m posting my sample donation letter to give you a format and outline so you can eloquently express your need. Check it out below and here: Sample Donation Letter and Sample Donation Card. If you need a little extra, check out our direct mail appeal template package: fitz.consulting/directmailappeal.
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