Charitable giving in 2006 should outpace last year’s national total, which was the highest year on record, according to a new report from a leading nonprofit consulting firm.
“We saw robust giving in 2005, due to the extraordinary response Americans had to the needs that came out of disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina, Wilma and Rita,” said George C. Ruotolo Jr., chairman of the Giving Institute, the Glenview, Ill.-based organization that released the report.
“Following on that, with the strong economy and stock market … we should see giving in 2006 set a record.”
It was estimated that total donations in 2005 hit a high of $260 billion and 2006 should top that.
Many of the year’s donations will come in during the holiday season, according to the report, when charity is at the top of many people’s mind.
Locally, nonprofits also depend on the holiday season to bring in donations. Goodwill of Greater Washington, for example, gets about 20 percent of its total individual cash donations for the year in November and December.
“A lot of nonprofits depend on individual giving to really make their budgets in the last part of the year,” said Chuck Bean, executive director of the Nonprofit Roundtable of Greater Washington.
“This time of the season pulls on people’s heart strings.”
