The Center on Philanthropy has fielded three waves of questions about giving and volunteering in the University of Michigan's biennial Panel Study of Income Dynamics (2001, 2003, and 2005). The most recent data available are based on the 2003 survey and cover charitable activity in 2002. Campbell & Company funded a research fellowship in Fall 2005 to enable a doctoral student at the Center to analyze the results of this nationally representative sample of more than 6,300 households. This section shares some of the key findings and contains links to short summaries with more information (pdf format; requires Adobe Reader available free here).

Additional reports will be posted as analysis is completed. We anticipate that findings from the 2005 survey will be available in mid- to late 2007, after data are released by the University of Michigan and analyzed at the Center on Philanthropy.

The information here is a summary of findings about giving, with statistical averages, cross-tabulations, and estimates about how much households give or volunteer. Scholars working with the same data use it to evaluate generosity, or giving in light of (or sometimes in spite of) other household characteristics, such as income, wealth, educational level, religious affiliation, race or ethnicity, age, and other factors. Links to some of those papers can be found in the Working Papers section on this web site, in particular the paper by Steinberg and Wilhelm, "Patterns of Giving in 2001." One of the findings of this analysis is that, after controlling for wealth, there is no statistically significant difference in giving by people of different ethnic or racial backgrounds.

The Center on Philanthropy Panel Study is supported 100 percent by donations and grants to the Center on Philanthropy. Funding for the research was provided by Atlantic Philanthropies Inc. Staff time and analysis work have been supported through gifts and grants from Campbell & Company, Lilly Endowment Inc., W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and donors to the Center on Philanthropy Research Fund.

Average household charitable donation is $1,872 in 2002

Households in the United States contribute approximately three-quarters of total estimated charitable giving each year, but not all households give to charity. An estimated 67 percent of households contributed to charity in 2002, and those contributing households gave an average of $1,872 each. In 2000, an estimated 69 percent of households donated to charity, and the average gift amount was $1,854.

Just under one-third of households (31 percent) reported that at least one adult member volunteered in 2002. On average, the men who volunteered totaled 254 volunteer hours in 2002 and the women who volunteered reported about 220 volunteer hours. Because more women than men volunteered, 51 percent of the volunteer time was from women. The brief report here presents these and other findings.

Forty-five percent of households give to religious causes; 55 percent support at least one non-religious cause

Religious organizations, a category that includes congregations, ministries, missions, and denominational offices (diocese, synod, etc.), receive gifts from 45 percent of American households. These gifts totaled an estimated $91.96 billion, or 60 percent of household giving in 2002. After religion, gifts to organizations that help people meet their basic needs were the next highest type of recipient. These included organizations working to provide shelter, food, clothing, and so on. These gifts were 11 percent of total estimated household giving and reached and estimated $15.9 billion in 2002. The summary provided here presents a graph showing the distribution of household giving developed using these data. It also includes graphs showing the percentage of households giving to various types of charities and the average amounts contributed in 2002 by donors to each charity type.

Note about Center on Philanthropy findings compared with Giving USA estimates by subsector

The estimates from the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study for household giving are based on the best survey data available. They do not correspond exactly with the estimates about giving to charity subsectors that are presented in Giving USA because different methods are used, inevitably resulting in different estimates. Giving USA asks charitable organizations for information about their receipts; the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study asks donors to report how their gifts were allocated to different types of charities. Some of the possible differences include:

• Definitions of the type of charitable recipient. Is a gift to a church-affiliated food pantry a religious gift or a human services gift? Giving USA uses definitions provided by the National Center for Charitable Statistics, but households responding to a survey might think of the issue differently from the coders who classify organizations by mission.
• What is counted? The Center on Philanthropy Panel Study asks households to report cash gifts or gifts of assets with cash value. Organizations in the Giving USA survey can (and do) include other types of gifts. Current accounting standards and practices require organizations to count pledges as revenue, and some do for Giving USA. Some organizations in the Giving USA study report only cash gifts, some report cash and pledges, and some report in-kind gifts.
• When are items counted? Questions in the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study ask households about gifts in 2002. Other studies, including Giving USA, also ask for calendar year information, but many organizations provide fiscal year data.