-----Original Message-----
From: Gabriel Orgrease
Sent: Thu 12/20/2007 8:53 PM

 
> then suddenly something really big happens, like the Gulf 
> region situation, and energies stored up get focused in that place. 

I think of it more in this way: capacity is unleashed.

> What 
> you get is instead of one response a thousand thousand responses and the 
> statistical odds are that a good portion of those responses will be 
> about as much help as humans can possibly come up with.
>
> I don't exactly agree that Americans don't give or do not know how to 
> give. We are all pretty damned good at giving.

The summary snips below are interestingly enough on the NPS website. For the full report:

http://www.nps.gov/partnerships/fundraising_individuals_statistics.htm

According to Giving USA, in 2006:

"Faith-based charities, including churches, received the most charitable gifts in 2006, capturing $96.82 billion -- 32.8 percent of total contributions in 2006.

"Charitable giving to colleges, universities and educational organizations accounted for the second largest share of all charitable giving at 13.9 percent. 

"Social or human service charities raised $29.56 billion in 2006, -- a decline of 9.2 percent in donations from the previous year. Social service charities were the main beneficiaries of disaster giving. [Note that the decline is probably representative of a decline in the greatly enhanced social giving following 9/11 and Katrina; I'd wager that the social giving in 2006, even after decline, is a greater percentage of total charitable giving than it was before 2001.]

"Giving USA reported that in 2006 giving to arts, culture, and humanities organizations, including historical and cultural preservation, totaled 4.2 percent of all contributions, while giving to environment/conservation and animal related causes totaled 2.2 percent. Both are relatively small percentage of total giving."

Dan

_____________________________________
Dan Becker, Division Manager
City & Regional Planning Division 
Raleigh Department of City Planning 
919/516-2632






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