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(Part of a series of articles on charitable giving and the Union County Foundation by David Vollrath - Exec. Dir.) Arguably Americans are the most giving people on the planet in regard to their financial support of charitable causes. Working at the Union County Foundation I witness people’s generosity almost on a daily basis. My experience is that people are for the most part inherently generous and desirous of financially supporting worthwhile causes. Sometimes people just aren’t sure how to form their charitable inclination into real world action. Helping shape charitable inclinations is probably the most important and most fulfilling task that I face. Do you have any idea how much philanthropy occurs in this country? Based on recent figures compiled by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University in 2004 Americans donated nearly $188 billion dollars to charity! Foundations and corporations contributed an additional $40+ billion dollars! I find it remarkable and quite heartening that individuals, people just like you and me, gave more than four times the amount as did corporate America and at $40+ billion you can’t say American business is uncharitable. So what does America tend to support with their charitable dollars? You may be surprised to learn that in 2004 over 35% of donations ($88.3 billion) went to support charitable causes classed as "religious." That is a pretty telling statistic in revealing where American’s charitable priorities lie. The second largest area of giving (13.6%, $33.84 billion) was to "education", third place went to "gifts to foundations"(9.7%). I found it interesting to learn that approximately $24 billion dollars was gifted to foundations in 2004. What this says to me is that foundations are uniquely able to meet the charitable needs of many people. It is worth noting that with religious giving ranked #1 and foundation giving ranked #3 that those two causes can work in concert. Several examples come to mind. Recently The Union County Foundation was the beneficiary of an estate that provides for a substantial endowment fund to be set up within the Foundation. This Fund will specifically support the benefactor’s local church. Another such fund initiated in a current estate settlement will award annual scholarships to graduating students of the benefactor’s church. What a wonderful way for these philanthropic minded individuals to support their home church and home church families without burdening their congregations with the administration of such Funds. In one of the above examples the benefactor also named other charitable causes other than the church to receive financial support. In other words one Fund supports several causes that were important to the donor. What a wonderful legacy and what an inspiring example of personal and effective charitable giving! The Foundation is equipped to help you achieve these goals by providing: planned giving and estate planning resource information, charitable gift annuities/life income plans, and a broad array of charitable choices. Please call us at 937-642-9618, email commfounduc@imetweb.net, reference our website at www.emarysville.com/unioncountyfoundation, or stop by our Marysville office at 126 N. Main St. We are committed to helping you.... “preserve your footprint in time.” |
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