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Thursday, December 22, 2011

National Philanthropic Trust: Donor-Advised Contributions Up

The Great Recession impacted nonprofits in a number of ways, no more so than donor-advised contributions.  According to a new report, recovery on that front is underway.

The NonProfit Times reported yesterday that The National Philanthropic Trust released its annual Donor-Advised Fund Report and it contained some great news.  According to the report, contributions to donor-advised funds increased by 25.5 percent in 2010, to a total of $7.7 billion.  Total assets from these funds accounted for $29.96 billion, which was a 12.3-percent increase over the $26.67 billion in 2009.  It was also closer to the pre-recession high of $30.2 billion.

The numbers look much better than they did during the height of the recession, from 2007-2009.  While the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell sharply from 2007-2009, it didn't affect donor-advised funds until 2008 and 2009.  There were some declines noted in the report.  For instance, the number of donor-advised funds decreased about 0.05 percent from 161,967 in 2009 to 161,873 last year.  A slight decline, but a decline nonetheless.  On the bright side, the average size of the funds exceeded $185,000, marking a sharp recovery from the $164,663 average in 2009.  It still remained lower than the $192,547 average in 2008 and $202,851 in 2007.

To read more on this story, check out NPT's website.

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