Charitable giving in Connecticut remained flat in 2016, the most recent year on record, although the number of individual donors continued to fall, new data show.
Total charitable giving in Connecticut for the year totaled $4.97 billion, compared with $5 billion in 2015, according to the Connecticut Council for Philanthropy’s (CCP) latest “Connecticut Giving Report.”
That follows an 11 percent increase in giving between 2014 and 2015.
As expected, individual donors in 2016 again made up the largest portion of Connecticut’s charitable giving, totaling 72 percent, or $3.57 billion, of the total $4.97 billion, CCP said. The 1,600 foundations in the state contributed 28 percent, or $1.4 billion, of all giving in 2016.
Although donors continued to provide the biggest portion of gifts, total individual giving through donations and bequests fell $156 million, or 4.5 percent, to $3.32 billion in 2016. More than half of the decrease was due to an $83 million, or 34 percent, fall in bequests, which are often an unpredictable donation source. The state’s shrinking population continues to play a role in the overall decrease, CCP said.
Connecticut foundations, meantime, contributed $1.6 billion in grants to organizations in 2016, which represents a 17 percent increase vs. giving in 2015.
While Connecticut ranks among the most generous states for charitable giving — 35 percent of Connecticut taxpayers reported charitable contributions compared to 25 percent of taxpayers nationally in 2016 — the nation’s number of individual gifts grew by 6 percent in 2016.
Moreover, individual giving has increased by 18 percent from 2006 to 2016, but the number of donors has decreased by 10 percent.
Out-of-state foundations contributed $417.3 million to Connecticut nonprofits in 2016, down slightly from 2015.
Health, education and human services programs in Connecticut were the biggest beneficiaries of local and national charitable giving in 2016.
CCP President Karla Fortunato said giving was “strong” in 2016.
“…this is important because we know there are more present threats to a thriving nonprofit sector, like changes to the federal tax code and cutbacks from the state and federal government,” Fortunato said.
The Connecticut Giving Report collects and analyzes data for its annual report from the IRS Statistics of Income Division, Guidestar, the University of Indiana’s Giving USA and the Foundation Center.
