You might have seen it recently. Sophie Penney, PhD, President of i5 Fundraising, saw it and then asked me what I thought. So, thank you for the question, Sophie; here goes…
Newsweek posted an article with this headline: “Trump Tax Plan Leads to $54 Billion Decline in Charitable Giving.”
There’s only one problem: IT IS NOT TRUE!
Shockingly, not even the body of the article supports the headline. Instead, the writer talks briefly about a $54 billion drop in itemized donations NOT a $54 billion drop in giving. This does NOT mean there was a $54 billion 
drop in actual giving. With fewer people itemizing their taxes, of course there would be fewer itemized donations. However, that does not mean fewer donations. Many donors will continue to give and continue to give generously despite not being able to itemize. By the way, the writer provided no source for the $54 billion figure.
The article furthers its doom-and-gloom theme by asserting that there was a 1.7 percent decline in overall charitable giving. However, the writer did not mention that that figure was for inflation-adjusted dollars. In real dollars, giving actually went up $2.97 billion (0.7 percent) between 2017 and 2018, and now stands at $427.71 billion, the highest level of all time, according to Giving USA 2019. Even if we look at inflation-adjusted dollars, giving in 2018 was the second highest in recorded history. Not bad.
If we want to understand the current philanthropy environment, we need to have an honest conversation using real information. In a previous post, I identified several factors affecting charitable giving:
- New Tax Code
- Decline in the Number of Donors Over the Years
- Decline in Religious Affiliation
- Rising Popularity of Socialism
- Declining Trust in the Nonprofit Sector
- Consumerism
You can read my analysis by clicking here.
I don’t normally personalize my criticism of reporters and editors, or question their motives, but I’ll make an exception for Newsweek. The piece was obviously written by a reporter, and reviewed by an editor, who are ignorant. lazy, or politically biased, most likely all three. It is misleading, at best. As a former newspaper editor, I’m appalled that the Newsweek piece was published in its present form. Quite simply, it’s fake news (though a more colorful word also comes to mind).
Enough with the click-bait nonsense! If we want to grow philanthropy, the nonprofit sector needs to have intelligent conversations based on legitimate data. And two important facts to keep in mind are that individual giving continues to hover around two percent of personal income while overall giving hovers around two percent of Gross Domestic Product, as it has historically.
That’s what Michael Rosen says… What do you say?
Update (July 13, 2019): While a report on MarketWatch was slightly more accurate than the Newsweek post, it was still misleading. For electronic publications, it’s all about getting readers to click through. So, many such publications resort to so-called “click-bait.” Unfortunately, that means they’re sometimes (perhaps often) willing to stretch the truth or misstate a situation in order to get folks to click through to a story. In this environment, journalistic ethics can take a backseat to e-commerce.
Update (July 31, 2019): Today, The Giving Institute released minor revisions to Giving USA 2019. Among other things, the corrected data confirms giving by Individuals totaled $292.09 billion, accounting for 1.9 percent of disposable personal income. Overall giving was $427.71 billion, accounting for 2.1 percent of GDP. The Giving Institute is making free updates available for people who downloaded the original report and materials.
Michael Rosen Says... 