April 15, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
In a sign that giving by wealthy people has recovered from the recession, the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund reported on Thursday that contributions in the first quarter of this year reached $269-million—the second largest first-quarter total in 20 years and a 25-percent increase in the number of donations over the same time in 2010.
The Fidelity fund, which allows donors to create personal charitable accounts and then recommend how the money is spent, also reported that donors gave charities $293-million in grants from their accounts. That was another 20-year quarterly record and an increase of 8 percent.
The stock-market recovery was evident in the Fidelity figures: Donations of appreciated stock accounted for 60 percent of contributions, up from 46 percent last year and 27 percent in 2009.
Donations of what Fidelity calls “complex assets,” such as privately held securities and partnership interests in businesses, grew by even more. Such donations nearly quadrupled this year, compared with the first quarter of 2010.
