Charitable Giving for Humanities Activities
- ACH organizations received $25.26 billion from corporations, foundations, and individuals in 2023—the largest amount ever recorded (in inflation-adjusted data extending back to 1983; Indicator IV-15). This accounted for 4.5% of all charitable giving that year.
- Giving to ACH organizations increased 337% from 1983 to 2000 (rising from $4.31 billion to $18.69 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars) and then, after a two-year decline, experienced another surge up to $21.93 billion in 2007. With the recession the following year, however, charitable giving to these organizations dropped sharply, falling 20.7% (to $17.39 billion). ACH organizations were thus particularly hard hit, as giving overall decreased by only 7.2%. During the recession and for the four years following it, giving to ACH organizations remained well below the 2007 high point.
- ACH giving increased in most years after 2011, rising from $17.37 billion to $25.25 billion in 2023.
- Looking across the entire 1983–2023 period, giving to ACH organizations increased 486%, outpacing growth in charitable giving overall (188%).
- As a share of all charitable giving, donations to ACH organizations shrank in 2021 to less than 4%, the smallest percentage recorded since 1993. The share began to increase the next year, however, and in 2023 reached 4.5%, on par with the share received by ACH organizations in 2019.
Source: Indiana University, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Giving USA 2024: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2023—Data Tables (Giving USA Foundation, 2024), pp. 6–7. Inflation adjustment performed by Giving USA using the Consumer Price Index. Data presented by American Academy of Arts and Sciences’ Humanities Indicators (humanitiesindicators.org).
Little information is available on charitable giving to the humanities. The Giving USA Foundation, a research organization that publishes information on trends in charitable giving, documents charitable support for an array of sectors, including “arts, culture, and humanities organizations.” Unfortunately, this category encompasses a range of activities (such as the performing arts) that are not within the scope of the humanities as conceptualized for the purposes of the Humanities Indicators. These data also exclude other key humanities activities (such as humanities education, which is tallied in an undifferentiated “education” category). Nonetheless, data from Giving USA provide the closest available approximation of the extent of charitable giving for humanities-related projects.
