Connecticut nonprofits hoping for year-end boost in charitable giving

With stocks staging a minirally in the closing weeks of autumn, Connecticut philanthropies are hoping additional year-end donations will shake loose from donors on Giving Tuesday and beyond, as many deal with increased demand for services and all absorb myriad increases in costs.

Staged annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving to galvanize charitable donations alongside splurges on gifts, Giving Tuesday generated roughly $2.7 billion in commitments last year in the United States.

Separately, the Fairfield County Community Foundation holds an annual Giving Day which is scheduled next year for Feb. 23.

Nationwide, charitable giving in 2021 totaled nearly $485 billion according to the Indiana University Lilly School of Philanthropy with data from Candid, representing a slight decline from the record haul nonprofits received in 2020 if factoring for inflation.

In 2019, the most recent year for which the IRS has data online, Connecticut residents reported about $2.8 billion in charitable contributions for the purpose of tax deductions. That represented a 6.7 percent increase from the prior year, though the number can swing significantly in any year based on “mega gifts” by the wealthiest donors, or bequeathals by estates that benefit charities.

Many nonprofits have been focusing their efforts in recent years to leverage social-media networks to convince more people to donate. And Connecticut now has a task force to study ways to spur more supermarkets and big-box retailers to donate food that otherwise might go to waste, as a way to keep food pantries stocked at the busiest times of the year or during shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Last year we provided 47 million meals to our neighbors — with the help of the entire community,” said Jason Jakubowski, CEO of Connecticut Foodshare, speaking during a task force meeting in early November. “We are, right now, distributing 400,000 more meals per month than what we were pre-pandemic. It’s a staggering number here.”

Erik Trautmann/Hearst Connecticut Media file photo Volunteers load a van in Norwalk with supplies for local shelters. With the stock market staging a mini rally in the final weeks of autumn, nonprofits are hoping charitable contributions will keep up through the holidays.