美国人去年捐赠出数十亿美元

AS IT IS 2015-07-06 Average Americans Gave Away Billions in 2014 美国人去年捐赠出数十亿美元

Last year, Americans again showed they are generous people.  A majority of Americans, two-thirds, gave money to charity in 2014. And they gave away more money than ever before. They gave away an estimated total of $358 billion. It is a seven percent increase from 2013. This is according to a report, Giving USA 2015: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2014.

The idea of helping¹ the poor and the less fortunate goes back to the 1700s, when the United States was a British colony. In the 18th century, people gave money to religion and education. But as the country grew and people did well financially, the giving included the arts, health and social causes.

“Giving has been part of our fiber² since the beginning of our country,” said Aggie³ Sweeney, vice⁴ chairperson of the Giving USA Foundation. “Americans have always seen giving as an important part of what makes our communities work. In America, we’ve had a belief of taking care of our own and wanting to be able not to only have government take care of things, but to invest in what we feel is really important.”

Now, more than two hundred years later, religion and education still receive the most money from Americans. Religious organizations have received more charitable money than any other cause or group over the last 60 years.

But things are changing. Overall, religion now takes in a smaller percentage of giving. This could be because the United States is seeing a decline, or drop, in religious beliefs, and less people go to church regularly.

“There’s been a steady decline over the years,” Sweeney said. “We do know, as we look at 40-year trends, that the proportion of American households that are actively⁵ involved in and participating in religious or spiritual communities has declined and we believe that that accounts for much of the difference in giving to religion.”

Most of the money to charity was from individuals. Another report, from the journal Chronicle of Philanthropy says that the top 50 donors⁶ from the U.S. gave a total of $9.8 billion. Americans can use charity gifts as a tax deduction⁷ on their yearly tax return forms. In 2012, the average cash charitable deduction on the tax returns was $4,449.

Corporations, or businesses, gave $17.7 billion. That is five percent of the total money donated. Ms. Sweeney says those numbers suggest philanthropic, or charity, giving is not of great importance for many U.S. corporations.

“Corporate giving increased a bit, but when we look at it as a percent of pre-tax profits, it dropped,” Ms. Sweeney said. “I would love to have corporations feel more of a sense of responsibility and commitment to the communities that helped to make them successful. We just aren’t seeing that.”

Words in This Story

generous –adj. giving freely or sharing money

charity –n. the act of giving money, food, or other kinds of help to people who are poor, sick, etc.

less fortunate –adj. not as lucky

fiber –n. strength or toughness of character

proportion - n. an amount that is part of a whole

cash- n. money

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 fiber   

n.纤维，纤维质

参考例句：

• The basic structural unit of yarn is the fiber.纤维是纱的基本结构单元。
• The material must be free of fiber clumps.这种材料必须无纤维块。

3 aggie   

n.农校，农科大学生

参考例句：

• Maybe I will buy a Aggie ring next year when I have money.也许明年等我有了钱，我也会订一枚毕业生戒指吧。
• The Aggie replied,"sir,I believe that would be giddy-up."这个大学生慢条斯理的说，“先生，我相信是昏死过去。”

4 vice   

n.坏事；恶习；[pl.]台钳，老虎钳；adj.副的

参考例句：

• He guarded himself against vice.他避免染上坏习惯。
• They are sunk in the depth of vice.他们堕入了罪恶的深渊。

5 actively   

adv.积极地，勤奋地

参考例句：

• During this period all the students were actively participating.在这节课中所有的学生都积极参加。
• We are actively intervening to settle a quarrel.我们正在积极调解争执。

6 donors   

n.捐赠者( donor的名词复数 )；献血者；捐血者；器官捐献者

参考例句：

• Please email us to be removed from our active list of blood donors. 假如你想把自己的名字从献血联系人名单中删去，请给我们发电子邮件。
• About half this amount comes from individual donors and bequests. 这笔钱大约有一半来自个人捐赠及遗赠。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 deduction   

n.减除，扣除，减除额；推论，推理，演绎

参考例句：

• No deduction in pay is made for absence due to illness.因病请假不扣工资。
• His deduction led him to the correct conclusion.他的推断使他得出正确的结论。