Big Jump in Charitable Contributions

W A S H I N G T O N, Oct. 29 -- America’s leading charities raised more than $38 billion last year, an increase of 13 percent over 1998, a philanthropy journal reports in this week’s issue.

The Salvation Army led the 1999 survey of the top 400 charitiesfor the eighth straight year, receiving $1.4 billion in cash anddonated goods, according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, theweekly “Newspaper of the Nonprofit World,” which began compilingcontribution statistics in 1991.

The top 400 accounted last year for about a fifth of charitablegiving nationwide, which has steadily increased over the pastdecade, especially in the last three years.

“Giving flows and grows with the economy,” Eugene R. Tempel,director of Indiana University Center on Philanthropy was quoted bythe Chronicle as saying.

“If the stock markets are not doing as well people are notgoing to be making these large transfers of assets,” he said.

The YMCA of the USA ranked second with $693.3 million indonations, followed by the American Red Cross, which saw a 25percent increase in contributions to $678.3 million.

Big Gifts Make Big Difference

Many charities experienced sudden growth because of a single,large donation.

Contributions to the San Diego Museum of Art in 1999 were 28times greater than the year before because of a $30 million giftfrom the estate of Rea and Lela Axline, said Chronicle spokesmanHarvy Lipman.

The San Diego couple’s fortune came from Rea Axline’s patent ona process for coating metal alloys onto other metal objects thatwas used on tanks and submarines in World War II. Their estate alsogave $30 million to another local art museum and $60 million to theCalifornia Institute of Technology.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy gathers financial data on cash andin-kind donations from individuals, foundations and corporations.Only private donations are tallied, not money from the governmentor fees charged by organizations.