Total charitable giving in the U.S. increased 8.9% in 2021, according to a report from the Blackbaud Institute published in mid-February.
Analyzing overall giving data for 8,635 non-profit organizations, which accounts for $46.4 billion in U.S. charitable gifts, Blackbaud found that large organizations ($10 million or more in annual contributions) saw a 9% increase, while medium entities ($1 million to $10 million) saw an 8.5% increase and small organizations ($1 million or less) saw a 9.2% increase.
Looking at the data from 2019 to 2021 for these organizations, there was a 19.1% overall increase in financial support during this period. Large organizations saw a 23% increase, compared to a 13.2% increase for medium-sized entities and 3.4% for small organizations.
Faith-based entities experienced an 11% overall giving increase in 2021 and an 18.8% increase from 2019 to 2021. This was the fifth largest increase in 2021 and the fourth largest increase in the last three years, among the 11 sectors into which the organizations were grouped.
Analyzing online giving data from 4,535 organizations, accounting for $2.9 billion, Blackbaud reported an 8.9% overall increase in online giving last year, with a 41.6% increase over the last three years.
In 2021, 11.9% of all donations in the U.S. were made online, with small organizations (17.8%) having the highest percentage of online contributions, followed by medium-sized (11.3%) and large (11.1%) organizations.
Faith-based organizations saw a 9.4% increase in online giving in 2021 and a 26% increase in online giving since 2019. Last year, faith-based entities had the highest percentage of total funding from online donations at 16.8%
In 2021, the average overall donation amount was $813 (up 10% from 2020), and the average online donation was $204 (up 15%). Faith-based groups had the second-lowest overall average donation amount at $348, and the sixth highest online average gift at $243.
The percentage of annual giving was highest in December across all 11 sectors, with faith-based organizations receiving 18.2% of all donations, and 18.7% of online contributions, in the final month of the year.
The full report is available here.
Managing editor for news and opinion at Good Faith Media.
