A new record was set for donations in the US; the AP reports that nearly $300 billion in donations to charitable cause were made by Americans in 2006, according to Giving USA. This was about 1% more than the figure in 2005, which included the period where several large-scale natural disasters such as the Asian Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina occurred.

There are a lot of comments on how this compares to other years, other portions of the US economy, and donation trends in other countries: I’m not going there! You can read it. There are a number of interpretations as well as qualifications that can probably be made – but still, that’s a lot of money.

Where did these donations go?
“The biggest chunk of the donations, $96.82 billion or 32.8 percent, went to religious organizations. The second largest slice, $40.98 billion or 13.9 percent, went to education, including gifts to colleges, universities and libraries.”

I was a bit stumped to read that the figure included Warren Buffet’s $1.9 billion donation to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation,given that foundations also donate money to non-profit organizations or charitable causes. Wouldn’t that mean that money is counted twice?

Apparently not:
“The Giving USA report counts money given to foundations as well as grants the foundations make to nonprofits and other groups, since foundations typically give out only income earned without spending the original donations.”

To be honest, I feel like I need better insight on the whole “donor sphere” to get a good perspective on what all this really means – but this article provides an interesting reference point to start from.