Nearly Half of Americans Say They Are Giving Less in 2010

As fund raisers work furiously to increase giving in these final days of 2010, new survey results show just how daunting the challenge is: Forty-six percent of Americans are giving less money to charities this year compared with last year, while 46 percent are giving the same amount as last year. Only 8 percent are giving more in 2010.

The damage done by the recession is a clear reason many donors are holding back. Fifty-six percent said that they needed to be in a better personal financial position before they could give more to charities.

“The amount that people are willing to give, no matter how much they want to help people, is dependent on their income first and foremost,” says Justin Greeves, senior vice president of public affairs at Vision Critical, a market-research firm that conducted the online study of 1,005 Americans. “They’re just in a difficult financial situation. More so than they have been. So they’re cutting back. They’re giving less.”

Besides the sluggish results for giving this year, the survey suggested an overall decline in all types of support for charities. Polls at the beginning of the decade found that 75 percent of Americans said they had donated or volunteered; only 65 percent said they had done so this year, according to the Vision Critical survey.

Polls that Vision Critical conducted at the beginning of the decade found that 75 percent of Americans said they had donated or volunteered; only 65 percent said they had done so this year, according to the survey.

The outlook for 2011 is tepid. Two out of five people said they will give the same as in 2010, while one in five said they will give more. Meanwhile, 19 percent said they will give less, and 21 percent said they will not be able to give anything to charity next year.

Nonprofit organizations could do a better job to encourage giving, respondents said. Sixteen percent said organizations should provide a better understanding of what their organizations actually do to help people, while 14 percent said charities could better explain to donors that more people are in need and would benefit from their help.

“It makes a donor feel really good,” Mr. Greeves says.