Was Mr. Deeds responsible for a 23% decline in donations to the United Negro College Fund?

I was watching the film Mr. Deeds the other day. The part came along where he donates his $40 billion inheritance to the United Negro College Fund (UNCF). As an accountant it made me curious to how much money is donated annually to the UNCF, so I did some digging.Below is a breakdown of the annual contributions by year. I started in 2002 when both the movie Mr. Deeds was released and the Form 990 tax filings are available and ran through 2008 when the recession began.2002 - $168,474,8062003 - $129,818,3842004 - $153,865,1772005 - $169,408,6292006 - $160,879,3662007 - $162,008,0492008 - $146,213,246I was surprised to see such a large drop off in 2003 equating to 23% of 2002's donations.At first I thought 2002 must've been a fluke of a year. Unfortunately I cannot find any tax filings before 2002 but this historical breakdown suggests they received substantial contributions leading up to 2002. The 2002 filing year also includes the period in which 9/11 occurred and a new scholarship was made for families affected by the tragedy. I thought this may have a caused a large uptick in donations but imagine there were more organizations than ever to donate to around this time. I imagine the UNCF was not being the only organization to aid 9/11 victims and their families. The longtime serving president and CEO William H. Gray III also stepped down in 2004. It can be inferred that this was due to poor performance in 2003.These facts lead me to believe 2002 was not a year out of the norm for the UNCF. So what would cause March 2002 to March 2003 to take such a large dip. Could it be due to Mr. Deeds?Studies show that people are less likely to donate when they don't think an organization needs the money. The fictional $40 billion received by the UNCF could have put in some peoples minds that the UNCF doesn't need the funds. It may have taken some time for people to finally realize a fake $40 billion isn't helpful and that's why we see incremental increase over the years after the film's release.The real kicker of all this is in the form of a spoiler. Emilio ends up being the rightful heir and the $40 billion given to the UNCF by Deeds was not his to give. So presumably the organization doesn't get the money in real life or the movie.tl;dr: The year Mr. Deeds came out donations to the United Negro College Fund went down 23%. There is almost no evidence this has to do with the $40 billion they received in the movie. via /r/movies https://ift.tt/2KpSpbh