Fewer Americans Made Year-End Donations
Despite numerous appeals for year-end donations, many Americans didn’t respond. An AP-NORC poll in early December found that half of respondents said they already made their charitable contributions for the year and 30 percent didn’t plan to donate.
The news comes as year-end government reports showed the beginning of an economic boon, though observers say news reporting may have tempered the good news, and giving.
December still serves as an important deadline for donors, according to Dianne Chipps Bailey, managing director of Bank of America’s Philanthropic Solutions division. She cited estimates from the National Philanthropic Trust that nearly one-third of annual giving happens in the final month. “December 31 does provide a target to make sure that they’ve given what they intended to give before the year is over,” she said, according to the Associated Press.
Americans donated an estimated $4 billion to nonprofits on the most recent Giving Tuesday, which was held during the week after Thanksgiving. However, most were much more likely to make a Black Friday purchase than a Giving Tuesday donation this year. Just less than half said they bought something on Black Friday, according to the poll, compared to about one in 10 who say they donated to a charity on Giving Tuesday.
“Black Friday gets the lion’s share of things,” said Oakley Graham, a 32-year-old from Missouri. “And then you’ve got Giving Tuesday a couple days later. Most people have probably spent all their spending money at that point.”
He still tries to help his neighbors, from handiwork to Salvation Army clothing donations. “Not that I’m not willing to give here and there,” he said. “But it seems like it’s pretty tough to find the extra funds.”
The poll found that about four in 10 U.S. adults said they donated to a charity when checking out at a store this year. Graham, who enjoys hunting and fishing, said he is “always susceptible to giving for conservation,” likely rounding up once or twice at Bass Pro Shops for that reason.
“With the finances, I don’t do a lot of buying these days,” he said. “But a couple cents here or there is like, I can do that. It doesn’t sound like much. But I know if everybody did, it would make a difference.”
The poll found that older adults are more likely than Americans overall to donate at store checkouts.
–Alan Goforth
