Top Health Care Financ. 1980 Winter;7(2):77-89.
Charitable giving is a big business in the United States. In 1979 over $43 billion was donated to charitable organizations, an amount equal to over 50 percent of the $78 billion combined net income for all of Fortune Magazine's largest 500 corporations in America. Only 13.7 percent (approximately $6 billion) of these donations were received by health care institutions. A much smaller amount went specifically to hospitals. The excalating cost of providing quality health care and the increasing difficulty of fully recovering these costs from third party payers is making hospitals more dependent on charitable contributions to remain solvent. Hospital executives and board members who can intelligently discuss with potential donors the tax economics of charitable giving are better able to increase the flow of donated funds to their own hospitals. Careful planning by donors and hospitals can result in properly structured donations that reduce taxes paid by the donor, increase the donor's personal cash flow and increase donations to the hospital.
慈善捐赠在美国是一项庞大的事业。1979年，慈善组织收到的捐赠超过430亿美元，这一数额相当于《财富》杂志评选出的美国最大500家公司总计780亿美元净收入的50%以上。这些捐赠中只有13.7%（约60亿美元）流向了医疗机构。专门用于医院的捐赠数额则更少。提供高质量医疗服务的成本不断攀升，而从第三方支付方全额收回这些成本的难度日益加大，这使得医院越来越依赖慈善捐款来维持运营。能够与潜在捐赠者明智地探讨慈善捐赠税收经济学的医院管理人员和董事会成员，更有能力增加流向他们所在医院的捐赠资金。捐赠者和医院的精心规划可以促成结构合理的捐赠，从而减少捐赠者缴纳的税款，增加捐赠者的个人现金流，并增加对医院的捐赠。
