Charitable Giving Fell 3.6% Last Year. Things Keep Getting Worse

CHICAGO - An annual survey says charitable giving fell 3.6 percent last year as Americans continued to struggle with the recession.

The Giving USA Foundation reports that Americans donated $303.75 billion during 2009, the second-worst year since 1956, when the foundation started conducting its surveys.

Religious organizations received just more than $100 billion, or one-third of the total. That was down less than one percent from 2008.

The survey found that giving to human services, health, international affairs and environment and animal-related groups all saw increases in 2009, while donations to education, arts, culture and humanities organizations fell overall.