A THREAD of my thoughts on this new Gilded Giving report from @IPS_DC mostly things that stood out to me and made me https://inequality.org/great-divide/gilded-giving-2020/

Total US foundation assets have doubled since 2005, and the average asset size has grown by 30%.

Foundations aren’t just growing in number, but in size.

Foundations now own $1.2 trillion in assets. The "poorest" 50% of Americans own $1.5 trillion in assets. Since 2005, the bottom 50%’s wealth has grown 1% annually and foundations' wealth has grown 5% annually.

When will the country’s charitable foundations surpass 150 million Americans at the bottom of the wealth distribution in financial power?

Probably in the next 10 years? Is this the policy outcome we want for the "charitable" sector?

Between 1995 and 2015, the top 1% of income-earners went from claiming one eighth to one third of all charitable deductions.

Federal spending to subsidize the charitable sector - about $50 billion/year - is captured more and more by the very rich.

The 62 2010 Giving Pledge-rs who were billionaires at the time they signed have watched their wealth DOUBLE over the last 10 years in spite of their commitment to generosity.

^These^ numbers are from before the COVID crisis which generated a 28% aggregate increase in wealth for these 62 billionaires as of mid-July.

END OF THREAD for now ..

Bottom line: the data in this @IPS_DC report show a charitable sector that is increasingly accountable only to very wealthy Americans, and which is expanding significantly despite the intended generosity of all involved. https://inequality.org/great-divide/gilded-giving-2020/