New York – Americans gave more money to charity in 2004 than the year before, and it looks like that generosity is still growing.
The 400 largest U.S. charities saw donations rise 11.6 percent last year from 2003, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper that tracks philanthropy and charitable organizations.
The United Way of America was the top fundraising group in 2004, the Chronicle said.
The publication’s Philanthropy 400 list, released today, ranks the nation’s biggest nonprofit groups by private donations. Money given to the top 400 organizations accounted for more than a quarter of the $248.5 billion raised in the United States last year, the Chronicle said.
Charitable giving has seen a turnaround since 2002, when donations declined for the first time since the list debuted in 1990.
“People are more confident about the economy,” said Stacy Palmer, editor in chief of the Chronicle of Philanthropy. She added that charities have been aggressively seeking out larger donations from wealthier donors.
Nearly 80 charities on the list are already reporting figures for 2005, most of which take into account the surges in donations after the Asian tsunamis of December and after Hurricane Katrina, which struck the Gulf Coast in August. Those charities are showing a median rise of 7.3 percent, the Chronicle reported.
The United Way took in $3.9 billion, the Chronicle said. The Salvation Army was No. 2 with $1.5 billion, and Feed the Children, raising $888 million, came in third.
Other top-10 organizations were the American Cancer Society, with $868 million; the AmeriCares Foundation, with $801 million; the YMCA, with $773 million; Gifts in Kind International, with $750 million; Lutheran Services in America, with $723 million; Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, with $683 million; and Catholic Charities USA, with $581 million.
The United Way was able to surpass the Salvation Army because 2004 was the first year it consolidated figures from its 1,350 local affiliates.
The group saw a 0.4 percent rise in giving in 2004, which it attributed to heightened donor awareness, said United Way spokeswoman Sheila Consaul.
“Their desire to give and to help is extremely strong, but it could’ve been even greater if the economy hadn’t been so sluggish,” Consaul told The Associated Press.
She estimated that 2005 donations this year are on par with, if not slightly higher than, last year’s.
Absent from the top-10 list for the first time was the American Red Cross, which fell to No. 11 from No. 8 last year after raising $557.1 million in 2004 – a 5 percent decline from the year before.
The Red Cross isn’t sure what contributed to the dip, spokeswoman Kara Bunte said.
