Major charitable gifts dropped by 30 percent last year

Fri, 04 Jan 2013 19:45:00 +0000

Britain's conservative Prime Minister David Cameron couches his current austerity government policy in the rhetoric of "The Big Society." The idea is that as the government hacks away at the welfare state, notions of civic society will be invoked to replace Britain's benefits safety net. Volunteerism and charitable giving will patch up the gaping wounds left by budget cuts, or so the proponents of Cameron's Big Society would suggest.

Tomes can and have been filled about the problems underpinning Cameron's Big Society. One issue among many is that the charitable giving of the very wealthy is an inconsistent resource. As new findings by the Chronicle of Philanthropy show, major charitable gifts in the U.S. dropped by 30 percent in 2012:

The largest gifts announced by American philanthropists in 2012 totaled nearly $5.1 billion, but $3 billion of that was from Warren Buffett’s promise in August to give stock valued at $1 billion to each of three foundations run by his children.

Without Mr. Buffett’s pledges, the biggest gifts announced in 2012 would have totaled only $2 billion — far less than 2011’s $2.6 billion.

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Major charitable gifts dropped by 30 percent last year