A recent survey conducted by the Community Research Institute (CRI) at the Dorothy A. Johnson Center for Philanthropy at Grand Valley State University asked 700 Kent County residents about their giving and volunteering.
In the October 2005 survey, 64 percent of local households said that they gave monetary contributions to help people affected by Katrina; of those people, 11.8 percent expect to decrease their local giving this year because of Katrina gifts. This number represents 7.5 percent of all Kent County donors.
“This information is something that many nonprofit leaders have been wondering about since September,” said Diana Sieger, president of the Grand Rapids Community Foundation. “We knew that with the scope of the disaster that there was the potential for a negative influence on local giving – and we now know that there will be a very small decrease in gifts,” said Sieger. Balancing this is the Katrina Emergency Relief Act (KETRA), which should provide some extra funds to local nonprofits. Created to balance the hurricane relief donations, it suspends limits on individual (and corporate) tax deductions for contributions made from August 28 to the end of 2005. These donations may be deducted up to 100 percent of adjusted gross income.
“The survey contained 39 questions that help paint an accurate picture of generosity of the greater Grand Rapids community,” said Joel J. Orosz, Interim Director of the Johnson Center. “We were specifically interested in the Katrina effect this year,” he said. CRI has conducted similar surveys for several years now. The survey has a margin of error of 3.7 percent.