Donations, Personal

Personal donations—whether from a child's piggy bank, a neighborhood garage sale, or a church fundraiser, are given out of a personal need and desire to help. For nonprofit, private organizations such as the Salvation Army, these accumulated donations are foundational to their work. Popular figures also use their star status to encourage others to give, as well as give from their own resources.

Money from personal donations provide relief organizations with cash that can purchase water purification tablets, food, shelter, and medical supplies for relief efforts and humanitarian aid after disasters. Even the United Nations (UN) has admitted that in recent years, funding from donor governments has proved insufficient to fund its requirements, and increasingly, the UN has appealed for private donations. Some of those private donors are foundations and corporations, but many others are individuals, such as children holding local fundraisers for the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF).

The combination of individual and corporate giving yields donations that match and sometimes exceed government contributions. The total for the 2004 tsunami in southeast Asia, for example, amounted to almost $5 billion, with Americans contributing approximately $1.6 billion of that amount. In the first three months following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, private donations totaled $980 million. Included in that amount are celebrity donations ranging from actress Alyssa Milano's $50,000 to Brazilian model Gisele Bundchen's $1.5 million; contributions ranging from $125,000 from Lance Armstrong's foundation to $1.5 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation; and untold numbers of $10 donations that made up the $1 million the [Page 134]American Red Cross raised through their cell phone texting campaign.

The personal contributions of individuals and donations from corporations are most frequently channeled through nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and nonprofit, voluntary citizens' groups. Some 40,000 NGOs operate internationally, with significantly larger numbers operating within countries.