Growth in Gifts of Stock is Leading Indicator that Giving is Strong

BOSTON, February 13, 2006 - The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund today announced that overall grants to charity last year surpassed $846 million, marking 2005 as the largest grantmaking year in its 15 year history. Since its inception in 1991, the Gift Fund has granted more than $5.5 billion to U.S. charities.

The nation's generous response to disasters fueled a 21 percent increase in grantmaking at the Gift Fund over the previous year. Gift Fund donors also expanded the number of charitable organizations for their grant recommendations by 10 percent to 95,000 since inception. Consistent with national trends¹, the majority of Gift Fund grant dollars funded religious organizations (34%), community and human services (27%) or education (24%). The remainder of grants in 2005 funded the arts, health and medical research and environmental causes.

An improving economy drove contributions to the nation's largest donor-advised fund program to top $1 billion in 2005, a milestone last reached in 2000. Donations of appreciated securities to the Gift Fund have steadily increased over the last three years to nearly 70 percent of total contributions. These stock donations to the Gift Fund, which historically rise and fall with market conditions, peaked at 79% of total donations in 2000, the same year the S&P 500^®Index was at its all-time high.

"A banner giving year for the Gift Fund is good news for the nation's nonprofits, particularly when a strengthening market fuels more gifts of appreciated stock," said David Giunta, president, Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund. "These milestones reflect the continued generosity of our donors and demonstrate how donor-advised funds continue to bring more individuals to philanthropy by making giving simpler and more effective."

Among its accomplishments in 2005, the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund also announced several new features to the program. These features include:

•		Investment Pool Flexibility: The Gift Fund expanded the universe of funds available for its investment pool program to include third-party mutual funds, in addition to Fidelity funds. This move provides donors with greater diversification opportunities when they recommend how their charitable dollars are invested.
•		New Investment Pool Choices: Two new pools, All-Cap Equity and Interest-Income II, incorporate fund selections from both Fidelity and non-Fidelity funds and expand to 11 the total number of choices available in the investment pool program.
•		Endowed Giving Program2: This simplified alternative to a traditional endowment program enables donors-working directly or with an advisor -to establish a charitable legacy without the burdensome administrative or due diligence responsibilities.

"More choice for how charitable contributions are invested and a simplified program to create a giving legacy are our latest innovations to help donors to make a greater impact on the charities they support," added Giunta. "We will continue to look for ways to build on our program to advance philanthropy by making it easier for more Americans to include charitable giving as part of their overall financial plans."

About Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund

The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund is one of the nation's largest public charities and has the largest donor-advised fund program in the country³. The Gift Fund was established by Fidelity Investments^®in 1991. The mission of the Gift Fund is to further the American tradition of philanthropy by providing programs that make charitable giving simple and effective. Since the Gift Fund's inception, more than 36,000 donors have recommended grants totaling more than $5.5 billion to more than 95,000 nonprofit organizations nationwide. For more information on the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund, visit charitablegift.org.

¹As reported by Giving USA, 2005.

²The Endowed Giving Program is a program of the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund.

³Chronicle of Philanthropy Rankings, 2005.

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The Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund is an independent public charity. Various Fidelity companies provide non-discretionary investment management and administrative services to the Gift Fund. Charitable Gift Fund and the Charitable Gift Fund logo are service marks, and Giving Account, Lifetime Giving, Legacy Giving and Preservation Giving are registered service marks, of the Trustees of the Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund. Fidelity Investments is a service mark of FMR Corp. used by the Gift Fund under license.