February 8, 2001 | Read Time: 1 minute
By GRANT WILLIAMS
The Internal Revenue Service has issued a report tracing the growth of charities from 1996 to 1997.
The number of charities in the United States that filed informational tax returns with the government rose from 192,059 in 1996 to 198,957 in 1997, an increase of 3.6 percent. That figure was well below the 6.2-percent increase that was observed from 1995 to 1996.
The government statistics exclude private foundations, most organizations with receipts totaling less than $25,000, and most churches and certain other types of religious organizations. Total revenue reported by charities was $754.6-billion, an increase of 7 percent from the previous year, the data showed. Total assets climbed to $1.4-trillion, an increase of 11 percent over 1996.
Another new report released by the Internal Revenue Service shows that 55,113 private foundations in the United States spent $16.4-billion on grants and other charitable activities in 1997. That amounted to a 13-percent increase over 1996.
Both reports appeared in the Internal Revenue Service’s fall 2000 Statistics of Income Bulletin. For a copy, send $22 to the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, P.O. Box 371954, Pittsburgh, Pa. 15250-7954.
