How does American giving compare worldwide?

Charities face upsurge in need for services. 

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Despite being mired in two wars and facing economic uncertainty in all sectors, Americans are still the most generous people in the world.

And they lead not just in terms of total dollars, but also as a proportion of gross domestic product. Up to 89 percent of all American households contribute to charity regularly -- more than any other country. 

Overall, Americans  --individuals, corporations and foundations -- gave more than $307 billion to charitable causes in 2008.  That was down 2 percent from 2007 levels with two out of three charities seeing decreases in giving in 2008, according to Giving USA.

“It would have been easy to say ‘not this year’ when appeals came their way and we definitely did see belt-tightening.” said Del Martin, chair of Giving USA Foundation. "Nonprofits have had to do more with less over the past year, but it could have been a lot worse."

Charitable organizations are bracing for another dip, in light of the staggering job losses and financial hardships of the past year. Just this past August, 86% of fundraisers at charitable organizations surveyed by a trade group said that the economy was having a negative or very negative impact on their fundraising abilities.

But it might not be that bad. Between 69 and 72 percent of Americans are regular givers and studies suggest that charitable giving may be recession proof - if you look at the long term picture. For 39 of the past 40 years, American charitable contributions have increased, said Melissa Brown, associate director of research for the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Private philanthropy from all developed to developing countries was $49 billion in 2007 (latest available data), according to the Hudson Institute’s Center for Global Prosperity (CGP), a Washington research organization.

And Americans also still lead the world in private charitable giving, according to the CGP. Private philanthropy from Americans was larger than ever, totaling $36.9 billion in 2007.

The center also found that  religious giving - which makes up on half of all individual giving -- increased by 1.6 between 2007 and 2008.  About 244,000 U.S. congregations gave a total of approximately $2.9 billion to U.S.-based international relief and development organizations.

For more info: Check out the Hudson Institute's Center for Global Prosperity 2009 report.