Giving USA 2023
I hope your summer is off to a great start. Summer is one of my favorite times. One of my little joys is not having to get up and dress in warm clothes in the morning. I hope you can find the things you enjoy doing over the summer, get outside and enjoy them while we have it. This month I thought I would share highlights from the Giving USA 2023 report. I have included it below. I did want to put a few things in context as you read it. First being, giving dropped in 2022 from an unprecedented and historical high in 2021 and 2020. It dropped 6% before inflation, which as we have talked about before, real dollar giving is what we pay attention to because that’s what shows us donor behavior. If an organization factors in the cost of living adjustments or standard budget increases in expenses they've already mitigated inflationary adjustments so they have to follow real dollar giving or non-inflationary adjusted numbers. While there are some interesting findings in the areas that increased and in the areas that decreased, I wanted to highlight two critical points as you review this:
Giving in 2022 followed two of the most incredible years in giving. However, it was still over 499 billion dollars. It is hard to follow 2 years like 2020 and 2021 when it comes to giving. So while it was a drop - it was a drop compared to the two highest years ever in giving history.
At of the end of 2021, there was still over 4 Trillion dollars that American households had withheld from the US economy that normally would have been put into cash flow in some way. The 2023 January Calibration Point Podcast highlights this with the Indiana University Kelly School of Business. This has an impact on giving as even if the smallest fraction of that money that Americans withheld from spending and kept in their bank accounts went to the charitable sector it would have had an impact on whether we ended in a gain or a loss for giving in 2022. As of January 2023, it was still being saved by households.
I think our key takeaway is that Americans are generous people who gave generously and some factors cloud a bit what we take away from the top-line numbers of giving. If we understand the two points above, it helps us put into a deeper perspective that last year was a very strong year for giving and that we have lots of reason to be optimistic for 2023. It also tells us we have to continue to do what we know is important which is cultivate relationships with those who share our vision and our passions, care for those who are on the boat with us, and engage them as partners in our vision of transforming people's lives in some way. Keep doing what you know. I am very optimistic about what last year's giving numbers show us!
Have a blessed month,
Jamie
