Americans gave nearly $300 billion to charity in 2006, setting a new record and breaking the record set in 2005 when the numbers were boosted by several natural disasters, including hurricane Katrina and the Indonesia tsunami. (Source: Giving USA Foundation). Adjusted for inflation, this represents a 1% increase over 2005.

What’s even more interesting is that individuals in America are driving this growth- 83.4% of the total. Combined with the fact that 65% of households with income less than $100,000 give to charity and you have a situation- unique to America- where giving cuts across all socio-economic groups. Indeed, according to the research, Americans give twice as much as the next most charitable country (Britain was #2), and approximately 12 times more than the next country, France.

I’m not sure why this is so- certainly there are a number of factors involved, such as less governmental support for social programs here and the tax deduction factor that drives larger gifts. Of course, Americans could just really be more generous and I could keep it at that.

Giving will continue to increase through the years as the supposed ’41 trillion dollar’ wealth transfer will start to kick in and it will probably make $300 billion look paltry. This might be 20 or 30 years down the road, and while I may not still be here, I know DonorPerfect will be able to track it!