Jan 1, 2006 12:00 PM

By David T. Leibell, partner, and Daniel L. Daniels, partner, Cummings & Lockwood LLC, Stamford, Con

Americans pride themselves on their philanthropy. Our economic contributions to charity and volunteerism far exceed those of other countries in the developed world. This has been true since the 17th century when Cotton Mather announced to the people of Boston that their charitable works were well known in heaven. There is no way to track the true impact of American generosity, other than using statistics gathered from tax returns or surveys. Although not a true reflection of the scope of American philanthropy, these statistics are all we have to go on. And statistical evidence lags. The latest we have is from 2003 and 2004, as numbers have not yet been tallied for 2005. Still, the statistics do give us a sense of where we are philanthropically as a nation along with a glimpse of where we might be going in the future.

The scope of the charitable sector in the United States is staggering. In the summer of 2004, according to the Internal Revenue Service, the number of charitable organizations crossed the one million threshold — with new charities being created at a rate of about 40,000 a year. The vast majority of these organizations are public charities, such as hospitals and schools. Public charities have been growing at a rate of about 4.5 percent a year and they have combined assets of more than $2.5 trillion.

Topics of Interest

Estate Tax	Donor Advised Funds
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Private Foundations	Life Insurance
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Topics of Interest

Estate Tax	Donor Advised Funds
GSTs	Family Offices
Private Foundations	Life Insurance
2010 Tax Act News	Industry Trends Surveys

E-Newsletter Signup

2011 Trust Glossary

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50 Years Ago This Month

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50 years ago, in May 1962, we featured articles such as: "Future of Canadian Trusteeship" by Arthur H. Mingay", "Training Trust Employees" by Ian M. Marr, "What is a Trust Officer?" by Eric J. Brown, and "Selling Services" by Donald I. Webb.

Conrad Teitell's Guide to Tax Benefits For Charitable Gifts

Click here to view the most up to date guide (September 2011)

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