Edition 0 is a published baseline report. It separates source estimates from project counts, stocks from flows and measured quantities from unknowns. The downloadable edition includes source links and definitions. Later editions can compare changes only when dates, scopes and methods are compatible.
Published October 25, 2026. This edition combines dated U.S. financial estimates with a census of this project. It does not estimate worldwide giving or claim changes in the system that have not been measured.
Edition 0 in numbers
The Diagnosis at Edition 0
15 conditions of the charity system: 1 established, 3 documented, 5 debated and 6 hypothesis. 23 open problems, 0 solved.
What the project has published
Availability does not mean independent verification. The table counts catalog entries, reference records and textbook chapters separately; a collection is not a representative sample of the charitable sector.
| Collection | Entries | Awaiting human review |
|---|---|---|
| conditions | 15 | 15 |
| programs | 26 | 26 |
| tools | 20 | 20 |
| record | 21 | 21 |
| interventions | 15 | 15 |
| charities | 16 | 16 |
| encyclopedia | 26 | 26 |
| cases | 13 | 13 |
| myths | 8 | 8 |
| disagreements | 8 | 8 |
| traditions | 8 | 8 |
| principles | 10 | 10 |
| journal | 3 | 3 |
The original 66-item roadmap distinguishes the actual software from operating institutions. The review queue shows what still needs independent source checks.
How to read the financial baseline
Giving USA 2026 estimates for all nine recipient subsectors, classified by type of organization. Giving to individuals and unallocated giving are separate categories, so these rows do not sum to the headline total. These are not depth classifications.
Fiscal year 2024 estimates across sponsors with different year-end dates. Some 2024 figures are imputed. The aggregate payout rate divides current-year grants by previous year-end assets; it does not describe every account.
Source categories and recipient categories describe different views of giving. They are not depth categories. Donor-advised fund assets are a stock; yearly grants are a flow. Adding those quantities would count unlike things. The national data below does not identify the counterfactual impact of a gift.
What Edition 0 can’t tell you
- How much giving reaches sources rather than symptoms
- How often headline impact findings replicate
- What a gift would have achieved if it hadn’t been made
- What simple public measure should replace overhead ratios
- How fast philanthropic money should be spent
Each of these is an open problem. Next year’s report gets better as they are solved.