Donations rose $16 billion, to $190.2 billion, 9.1 percent above 1998.
Donors seem to be feeling more cheerful, as pledged future donations rose by 9%, having dipped last year.
Charitable donations rose last year, and a quarter of the population regularly volunteer – but we could do more.
The number of alumni making donations rose 5%, to almost 170,000 people, and non-alumni donors increased by 11% to almost 44,000 people.
In 2014, on the first Giving Tuesday in the UK, charitable donations rose by 270% and, according to new research, one in three people is likely to donate this year.
Giving USA, which is published annually by the American Association of Fund-Raising Counsel's Trust for Philanthropy, reported a year ago that in 1998 donations rose in every area except the arts, culture and humanities.
Katie Cutler, 22, who is awarded the British Empire Medal, hoped to raise £500 for Alan Barnes, 67, but when her appeal went viral and donations rose to more than £300,000, he was able to buy a new home.
Islamic Relief USA, an aid organization with affiliates around the globe, has seen annual donations rise to about $25 million last year from roughly $7 million at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks, with an additional $50 million in in-kind gifts, said the group's spokesman, Mostafa Mahboob.
The United Way had expected fund-raising to fall by 2.3percentt, even with early reports of increases in places like Milwaukee, where the campaign pulled in $34 million, a 6.2percentt increase over 2001-02, and Birmingham, Ala., where donations rose by 4.1percenttoto $31 million.
