GLENVIEW, Ill. — Giving to religious charities and congregations passed the $100 billion mark for the first time in 2007, according to a recent report by the Giving USA Foundation.
Giving to religious groups increased 4.7 percent, bringing the total to $102.32 billion. Overall giving to charitable causes reached $306.39 billion in 2007, a 3.9 percent increase from 2006.
The report, released June 23, shows that donations to religious causes accounted for half of all individual charitable giving. Three-quarters of all giving in the United States came from individual donations to charity, the report said.
Del Martin, chair of the foundation, said, “And what you can’t forget is that the ‘little guys,’ the families most affected by the economy, kept on giving despite any worries they might have about their personal situations.”
Charitable giving consistently represents 2.3 percent of the average American’s disposable income year-to-year, a figure that held up in 2007, according to the report.
The report, conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, analyzed eight charity subsectors — arts/culture/humanities, education, environment/animals, health, human services, public-society benefit, international affairs and religion.
Each saw individual increases last year, according to inflation-adjusted estimates.
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