Large Numbers of Small US Charities Likely To Close

Salviati’s Florentine’s painting “Charity” , 1950-1954GivingTracker| Reuters reports that thousands of small US charities are likely to close this year, due to the recession. The nonprofit sector anticipates that this year could be hit harder than last. Simultaneously, states looking for cash are considering taxing nonprofits.

Many donors prefer to support established institutions during a fiscal crisis. Six percent of U.S. charities received 94 percent of $306.65 billion in 2008 donations funding. Almost half the country’s charities received less than $25,000 a year.

Hawaii has proposed a 1 percent tax on charities, Kansas is considering making nonprofits pay sales taxes and Pennsylvania is thinking about removing a property tax break for charities.

There were 1.9 million nonprofit groups in the United States in 2006 accounting for 5 percent of gross domestic product, according to figures from Independent Sector. All are exempt from federal income tax. via Reuters US charities hit by recession’s impact on spending.