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Can We Grow Philanthropy in the US?
January 13, 2012 The Nonprofit Quarterly | Simone P. Joyaux | January 13, 2012
Surely we all want to grow philanthropy, and the total dollars do grow, except during a recession. So that’s good. But, for 40 years, U.S. charitable giving has stayed fairly constant—at about two percent of average household income according to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University’s annual “Giving USA” report on philanthropy. That’s just not so good. Actually, that’s pretty bad. Now is the time to face this problem. But let’s think of this as an opportunity—the opportunity to grow philanthropy in the U.S. To begin, read the “Growing Philanthropy in the United States” report from the Growing Philanthropy Summit, held in June 2011 in Washington, D.C. …
