October 26, 2011 | Read Time: 1 minute
Charities got good news about the year-end giving season in a poll released today: Three out of four Americans say they plan to give at least the same amount as they did last year if not more. That’s better than last year, when only 63 percent of Americans said they would give at least as much to charity as they did in the previous year.
The survey, by Fidelity Charitable, asked donors not just about their year-end plans but also about how much they are influenced by the availability of charitable deductions.
Nearly 70 percent said they at least “somewhat agreed” with the statement that giving would drop if tax breaks were limited for the wealthiest Americans. (That idea has been much under debate in Washington as policy makers seek ways to limit the budget deficit.) But two-thirds of the donors said their own giving is not influenced by the prospect of getting a tax break.
Fidelity Charitable surveyed 502 people in mid-October by telephone.
In other survey findings:
* Forty percent said they use some form of technology to give, such as a Web site, text message, or a personal fund-raising page set up by a friend or relative on a social network.
* Half said they planned to attend a charitable fund-raising event or purchase items at nonprofit auctions or other events.
Fidelity itself is doing very well in attracting donations. Last year Fidelity’s fund received $1.3-billion from donors, a more than 38-percent increase over 2009, pushing it to No. 3 on The Chronicle’s most recent annual list of the 400 nonprofit groups that raise the most money for charity.
Fidelity says contributions are continuing to be strong; rising 23 percent for the first nine months in 2011 compared with the same period last year.
