03 February 2010

Charitable Giving

 

A poster for the Dollars for Darfur fundraising campaign

A poster for the Dollars for Darfur fundraising campaign

This article is excerpted from the book American Citizenship, published by the Bureau of International Information Programs. View the entire book (PDF, 4.57MB).

Another way that Americans contribute to their society and to the world is by donating a portion of their income to charitable causes. According to the most recent statistics assembled by the National Philanthropic Trust (NPT), 89 percent of American households give to charity, and the average annual contribution per giver is $1,620. NPT reports that Americans contribute more than $250 billion to charity each year.

American philanthropy reached an all-time high of $295 billion in 2006, following Hurricane Katrina in the U.S. South and the Asian tsunami, but declined in 2008 as a recession began. Still, many Americans are, by nature, quite generous, beginning from a very early age.

Take Nick Anderson and Ana Slavin, for example. While they were secondary school students in Massachusetts, Anderson and Slavin became aware of the genocide in Darfur. “Our generation knows it will inherit a world with staggering problems,” Slavin said. “We simply can’t wait for others to change the world. We must start now.”

Both teens used social-networking Web sites to stay in touch with friends, and they realized that those same sites could bring them together with students around the country for a good cause. They founded Dollars for Darfur and set a goal to raise $200,000 during the 2006–2007 school year; instead, they raised $306,000 from students at some 2,500 schools nationwide. Now administered by the Save Darfur Coalition, Dollars for Darfur has raised more than a half million dollars. Half of the money donated is used to fund humanitarian relief in Darfur and Chad; the other half goes to efforts to maintain political pressure to bring peace to Darfur.

With nearly 1.2 million charitable organizations and foundations in the United States alone, Americans are free to contribute to whichever charity — or charities — inspires them to give. Many choose to keep their money close to home, working through their neighborhood religious institutions, food banks, or homeless shelters. In addition, Americans dig into their own pockets to support nationwide organizations that serve causes such as medical research, veterans affairs, or children. Americans, too, are strong supporters of international relief organizations, demonstrating that U.S. citizens consider themselves citizens of the world as well as their own country.