The main takeaway from Giving USA: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2022 made headlines in June: Charitable giving in the United States dropped by 10.5% after inflation, which was only the fourth such decline in 40 years.

According to the report, “Americans gave an estimated $499.33 billion to U.S. charities in 2022, representing a decline from the extraordinary generosity exhibited during the pandemic era. The decrease follows the two strongest years of charitable giving on record in inflation-adjusted terms, including 2021 when giving surpassed $500 billion for the first time.”

The 68th annual issue of the report, published by Giving USA and researched and written at Indiana Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, shows that individual giving fell by 13.4% after inflation. Donations from individuals, at nearly $500 billion, accounted for 64% of all gifts.

The report noted, “… the rising cost of goods, declines in disposable personal income, and soaring interest rates may have required households to make tough decisions about charitable giving.”

The report categorizes nonprofit sectors into several categories: religion; human services; education; foundations; health; public-society benefit; international affairs; arts, culture, and humanities; and environmental and animal organizations. GUSA estimates that giving to education declined 3.6% between 2021 and 2022, to $70.7 billion—a decline of 10.7% when adjusted for inflation.

The report’s education section includes multiple subcategories in addition to higher education. For that reason, notes Brian Flahaven, CASE’s Vice President for Strategic Partnerships, “it can be helpful for advancement professionals to view the GUSA survey alongside CASE’s VSE [CASE Insights on Voluntary Support of Education] survey, which measures philanthropic support specifically for nonprofit and public higher education institutions in the U.S.”  

The VSE annual survey has collected data on fundraising outcomes at higher education institutions in the United States since 1957, making it the nation’s longest-running survey on such information. According to the 2022 survey, voluntary support to those institutions totaled $59.50 billion in the fiscal year that ended on June 30, 2022. That is an increase of 12.5%—$6.6 billion—over the previous fiscal year.

When comparing the GUSA with VSE, Ann E. Kaplan, CASE’s Senior Director of the Voluntary Support of Education Survey, notes that, in addition to the broader category for education, there are other differences to consider. Chief among them is the timeframe for the surveys.

“The VSE uses an academic fiscal year, while GUSA uses the calendar year, which provides only a six-month overlap in the periods studied,” she explains.

“The end of the 2021 calendar year, which is midway through the 2022 fiscal year, represented a peak in the value of the stock market,” adds Kaplan. “Large gifts are often made in the form of appreciated securities, and they are made toward the end of the calendar year when donors are engaged in tax planning. This helps to explain the level of giving to colleges that fiscal year. It also may explain why giving to the education sector as a whole during the 2022 calendar year was not strong, as the peak was in the 2021 calendar year.”

For CASE members interested in comparing the two surveys, Kaplan advises considering a five-year rolling average.

“We find that, viewed this way, the trends in the figures barely differ,” she says. “GUSA’s estimate of giving to the education sector will always be higher than CASE’s estimate of giving to colleges and universities, as GUSA studies more types of education institutions. Also, whether giving rises or falls in a particular year often varies between the two studies. However, the historical trends are virtually identical. Five-year averages reveal that the trends in both series are parallel.”

The GUSA report acknowledges this: “Declines in charitable giving are rare, and the historical record of Giving USA data show that giving bounces back.” The report also emphasizes that the declines should be put in context. Donors responded to the pandemic, the recession, and the movement for racial justice with “an outpouring of generosity” on top of “extremely rigorous growth in the stock market throughout the pandemic” accounting for historic rates of giving just prior to 2022.

“The GUSA annual survey is an important tool for our members in understanding trends in giving,” says Flahaven. “When viewed in conjunction with CASE Insights surveys, which provide a picture of philanthropic support of higher education institutions specifically, CASE members can gain a broad view of the overall philanthropic landscape along with a focused view of giving at their own institution and in relation to their peers.”

To help address declines in giving, CASE is urging Members of Congress to support the bipartisan Charitable Act (S.566, H.R. 3435), legislation that would restore and expand a charitable deduction for non-itemizing taxpayers. You can learn more about the legislation on the CASE website.