In past articles, I have examined a number of pieces of economic data as “key economic indicators” of continued recovery. These have ranged from employment data to seaport shipping activity and retail sales to name only a few. Today we add a new one: charitable giving.

As you can imagine, giving to charities is really, in most cases, a very discretionary item. Though we are admonished to keep giving faithfully even during difficult times, unfortunately for many of us, when tough times hit, we either dramatically reduce the amount we give or we stop giving all together. And charities really feel it when we do.

So I was pleasantly surprised to recently learn that after a two-year drop, charitable giving in the U.S. was up in 2010. [Read more…]