How America Gives Special Report: Breaking the Charity Habit
Each year, the charity world waits eagerly for the announcement of how much individual Americans gave to charity. And each year, that annual total doggedly climbs higher, faltering only occasionally. Four of the past five years, it has broken its own record, prompting confetti sprays and paeans of praise to this country’s generosity.
Yet fewer Americans appear to be giving to charity. In 2015, only 24 percent of taxpayers reported a charitable gift, according to a Chronicle analysis of Internal Revenue Service data. That’s down from 2000 to 2006, years when that figure routinely reached 30 or 31 percent.
Economists caution that the number of taxpayers who itemize their taxes and report charitable giving can vary for many reasons; Americans in the past decade have taken fewer deductions of any kind. But the Chronicle analysis is in line with several other studies. . .