Global Generosity Skyrocketed Last Year but Less so in the U.S.
3 min
A report based on a GivingTuesday research collaboration delivered hopeful news on global generosity, finding that 83.6% of people worldwide donated to others in some way last year.
But, in a surprising “double-whammy,” the recently released research also found that both the number of givers, and the dollars they donated, fell last year in the U.S. for the first time since 2010. Also, stock market declines in 2022 appeared to cause large donors everywhere to give less.
The research, titled “Rethinking Resilience: Insights from the Giving Ecosystem,” was compiled by GivingTuesday Data Commons, a project involving more than 300 organisations and more than 50 global data labs. The Data Commons looks at “giving behaviours, contexts and patterns, movement growth, and altruistic motivations” with a goal of determining and sharing best practices for driving philanthropy.
GivingTuesday began in 2012 as an effort to encourage charitable contributions on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving in the U.S., and has expanded into a global movement.
“Rethinking Resilience” gleaned data from Asia, Africa, Europe, South America, and North America, finding that 56% of people across the globe gave in at least three ways last year, including donating their time, donating things they owned, or providing money; also, 57% gave to all of the three types of recipients that the report tracked: formal charities, informal groups, and individuals.
The report “makes it clear that in many communities, giving to others is not an optional ‘extra’ but rather a first principle of community membership,” Woodrow Rosenbaum, chief data officer at GivingTuesday said in an introduction to the research.
The Data Commons goal, Rosenbaum said, is to “bring the same sorts of data-driven tools to the social sector that the business sector has had for decades.” These tools should help to counter what has become a narrow view of philanthropy.
“Our research reveals that broadening outreach and engagement to include previously under-represented demographics can significantly improve organizational resilience, especially in times of economic volatility and uncertainty,” Rosenbaum said.
The report found a significant rise in volunteering everywhere, which often happens when the economy is shaky. It also found that young people everywhere were “giving more often and in more ways” than older ones.
Overall, this global data gathering exercise revealed that giving can look far different country to country. The “most inescapable insight,” the report said, is that less wealthy countries were consistently more generous than wealthy ones. Kenya, for instance, demonstrated “a near universal commitment to generosity across all metrics,” with India as a close second.
In the U.S., the number of givers fell by 10%, driven by an 18% drop in new donors and a huge drop in donor retention: 26.4% from first-time donors and 3.5% from repeat givers.
Contributions by “major” philanthropists, who give between US$5,000 and US$50,000, and “supersize” ones who give more than US$50,000 fell the least, but because of the large size of their donations, the drop off was more keenly felt. Total dollar contributions fell by 1.7% last year.
The biggest decline among these philanthropists was in the fourth quarter of last year as a 20% drop in stocks took a toll. That fall off could be “the canary in the coal mine,” the report said. “Should large donors suddenly retreat further, the impact on an unprepared social sector could be devastating.”
The message to nonprofits is to actively build a wider, more diversified base of support beyond big philanthropists to “strengthen resilience and reduce the adverse effects of steadily growing competition for a shrinking pool of increasingly cautious large donors who may be retreating in the face of economic uncertainty and volatility,” the report said.
Copyright 2020, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved Worldwide. LEARN MORE
For Central Element, the start of work at Pearl represents another step in the company’s growing eastern suburbs pipeline.
All three vehicles will form part of a broader charitable initiative benefiting Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, the American Red Cross and Starlight Children’s Foundation
Investors are bracing for a bumpier fall stock market due to shifting odds of a Federal Reserve interest-rate increase and other macro challenges.
3 min
The stock market had a decent summer. Investors are bracing for a bumpier fall.
In the past couple of months, equity investors cheered soaring profits at big companies, shrugged off jitters in the bond market and nudged megacap tech shares back near records.
Now, as the post-Labor Day stretch begins, a number of new challenges lie ahead: ever-shifting odds of an interest-rate increase from the Federal Reserve. Sky-high expectations after a stunning earnings season. The persistent threat of higher consumer prices as fighting in the Middle East drags on.
“You’re moving from this earnings-driven market to this macro-driven market with the Fed, inflation and interest rates in focus,” said Keith Lerner, chief investment adviser for Truist Advisory Services. “It tends to be a choppier period.”
Historically, every major U.S. stock index experiences its worst average return in September. The Dow Jones Industrial Average has slid an average 1.1% in the ninth month of the year, in data that dates back to the 19th century. The S&P 500 has seen the same average decline—and for every September dating back to 1928, the benchmark ends the month lower more than half of the time.
Analysts caution against reading too much into those seasonal patterns. But in recent weeks, new reasons for investor caution have emerged. One of the largest: the looming threat of an interest-rate increase from the Fed, which announces its next policy decision on Sept. 16.
Chairman Kevin Warsh’s decision to ditch forward guidance and take more of his cues from markets has muddied the waters for investors when it comes to monetary policy. That has left traders scouring Fed governor speeches and economic-data reports for clues on the central bank’s next move.
“There’s going to be a lot of eyes on those numbers,” said John Luke Tyner, head of fixed income and portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors.
The past couple of weeks offered just one example of how frequently those expectations can change. After Warsh struck a hawkish tone during remarks on Aug. 28, the odds of a hike at the Fed’s next meeting jumped from 35% before the speech to 58%, according to CME FedWatch data.
On Thursday, Fed governor Christopher Waller made a case for leaving rates where they are. Interest-rate futures showed coin-flip odds between a hike and a hold. Then Friday’s robust jobs report amped up rate-hike bets once more, back to a roughly 60% chance of higher rates after the meeting.
“Rates have really been driving the car for equities the last few weeks,” said Ross Mayfield, an investment strategist at Baird.
That uncertainty comes as an unruly bond market could put pressure on stocks. Treasury yields have marched higher for much of the summer, driven by concerns about rising oil prices, growing U.S. budget deficits and a deluge of tech-company bonds now competing for investors’ cash. Last week, the rout went global, pushing yields to multiyear highs in Japan, Germany and the U.K.
Higher bond yields can drag on stock prices and lift borrowing costs for companies and consumers across the economy.
Rising prices remain the top concern for bond traders, and continued fighting between the U.S. and Iran has done little to ease those worries. The national average price of diesel climbed to a record of $5.850 on Friday, according to AAA. That is up from $3.712 a year ago.
Investors will get more insight on the path of prices this week, with the much-awaited consumer-price index report due Friday and a reading on producer prices Thursday.
With another blockbuster earnings season in the books, some analysts have also warned that any boost from the third-quarter reports due in the coming months could be minimal. Back-to-back quarters of standout profits have raised expectations and made it especially difficult to impress traders. Custom-chip company Broadcom, for example, said Wednesday that it more than tripled its earnings and nearly doubled its revenue. Shares slipped 2.7% the next session.
Many analysts note there are plenty of reasons not to panic. The economy is in impressive shape, thanks to a healthy labor market and the rippling effects of the artificial-intelligence investment boom. Profits are booming at America’s biggest companies. The Cboe Volatility Index has dropped to its lowest levels of 2026. Credit spreads are tight, a sign bond investors aren’t concerned about economic conditions that could hurt companies.
But the mood has shifted from the euphoria that felt tangible when the Nasdaq was notching back-to-back records early this summer. The question, Mayfield said, is whether the fundamentals that have bolstered the bull market so far can stretch the rally into 2027.
“There are more anxieties or uncertainties about the backdrop,” he said. “It does feel like a transitional moment.”
From Tokyo backstreets to quiet coastal towns and off-grid cabins, top executives reveal where they holiday and why stepping away makes the grind worthwhile.
When the Writers Festival was called off and the skies refused to clear, one weekend away turned into a rare lesson in slowing down, ice baths included.
