Giving to Education Drops 3.6%

Education at all levels received just over $40 billion in gifts in 2009, a drop of 3.6 percent from the previous year, according to the annual Giving USA report. Over the last two years, giving to education has dropped by nearly 12 percent in inflation-adjusted dollars. The trends for education are similar to those for most other categories of philanthropy over the past two years -- a drop in 2009 but a smaller dip than the year before. Education received 13 percent of gifts in 2009, the second-highest category (after religion, at 33 percent of the total).