At the outset of 2015, Atlas of Giving, a philanthropic-giving forecasting service, had predicted that charitable gifts would actually drop 3.2% from last year’s $482.3 billion. But the organization's mid-year report showed charitable giving up 7.6% to $238.9 billion versus the first half of 2014.

http://blogs.barrons.com/penta/2015/08/21/philanthropy-a-surprising-rise-in-giving/