From Main Street to China, the recently released Giving USA report is making news. In fact, the high number of articles in the press and on the blog-o-sphere points to an apparent high interest in the world of giving.

As we posted on Monday, U.S. charitable giving reached an estimated $306.4 billion in 2007, exceeding $300 billion for the first time. I am slowly beginning to make my way through the various pie-charts and graphs, and will have additional observations, but here are some quick stats, all unadjusted for inflation:

• That was a 3.9% increase from 2006 in total giving; it is felt the increase is largely attributable to stock market performance in early 2007, overall growth in the GDP, and increases in corporate and personal income
• Individual giving increased 2.7%
• Corporate gifts rose 1.9%
• Foundation giving increased by 10.3% to $38.52 billion dollars; charitable bequests grew by 6.9% to $23.15 billion

The report also looks at where people (corporations) donated:

• Religious Organizations – $102.32 billion (up 4.7%)
• Education – $43.32 billion (up 6.4%)
• Human Services – $29.64 billion (up 8.4%)
• Grant Making Foundations – $27.73 billion (down 9.4%)
• Health – $23.15 billion (up 5.4%)
• Public-Society Benefit – $22.65 billion (up 5.8%)
• Arts, Culture, and the Humanities – $13.67 billion (up 7.8%)
• International Affairs – $13.22 billion (up 16.1%)
• Environment and Animals – $6.96 billion (up 10.8%)
• Deductions carried over and other unallocated giving – $23.73 billion

Some interesting observations: this is the first year that religious and faith-based organizations have raised more than $100 billion.

The International Affairs category was up substantially and points to a more “worldly” perspective among millennial donors. This also applies to Environmental and Animal Welfare organizations that also saw a double-digit % increase.

For those of you interested, the complete report is available from the Giving USA Foundation.