Stock Market Gains Could Help Charities

Charitable giving soars and dips along with the stock market, history has shown, and the recent upturn in the market may prove a boon to charities as well as investors, reports USA Today.

Trent Stamp, president of the watchdog organization Charity Navigator, speculates that this could be the biggest year for charities in 5 to 10 years. Major disasters did not cause the public to be turned off from giving to non-relief organizations, as some anticipated might happen, the paper reports.

Year-end giving coupled with the positive mood of the market could help charities, observers say.

“For the stock market to be going up in advance of people making those year-end decisions—that’s a good thing for philanthropy,” Patrick Rooney, director of research for the Center on Philanthropy, tells the paper.