Posted on January 17, 2011

Contributions to Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund Surpassed $1.6 Billion in 2010

The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund has announced that it received more than $1.6 billion in contributions in 2010, a 42 percent year-over-year increase.

In total, donors to the nation's largest donor-advised fund program awarded more than 353,000 grants totaling more than $1.2 billion to nonprofits nationwide last year — an increase of 19 percent and 14 percent, respectively, year-over-year. It was the fourth consecutive year that donors authorized more than $1 billion in grants and the sixth consecutive year that Fidelity received more than $1 billion in contributions.

Contributions to the fund were bolstered by a 44 percent increase in gifts of appreciated securities, which comprised 50 percent of all incoming contributions. In addition, contributions in the form of non-publicly traded assets such as privately-held C- and S-Corp stock and real estate nearly tripled.

"With demands on the nation's charities as great as they've ever been, our donors gave at record levels in 2010 — something we hope is a leading indicator for overall charitable giving in the United States," said fund president Sarah Libbey. "The level of activity we saw this past year illustrates the growing role of donor-advised funds such as the Gift Fund in charitable giving and also is a clear signal that Americans remain deeply committed to supporting causes they care about."