Hopeful News at Last?

On January 24th, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported that Fidelity Charitable is now raising more than it did before the recession started–$2.9-billion last year, up from $1.6-billion in 2010 and $1.9-billion in 2007 before the downturn started. (Since most of the gifts it receives are in the form of stocks, the increase is largely attributable to the upward trend in the stock market.) More importantly for those in the nonprofit trenches, donors recommended distributions of $1.3 billion in gifts to charities, up from $1.2 billion in 2007. It’s too early to tell whether this is a trend rather than an anomaly, but a girl can always hope.