Americans continued giving to their usual charities last year as well as donating more than $3.3 billion to help the victims of the Katrina and Rita hurricanes, according to a new national survey.

The survey of 5,000 households by The Conference Board, released last week, found that nine of 10 people who gave to hurricane relief efforts also gave to their customary charities.

So-called "crisis giving" usually does not affect regular charitable giving, experts say, even though conventional thinking has been otherwise.

"It comes down to what's motivating people to give," said George C. Ruotolo Jr., acting chairman of the Giving Institute, an organization that represents fund-raising and consulting firms.

Disasters viscerally affect people, he said, particularly when they see visual images. Such emotional connection leads to frustration from an inability to help, except with a donation.

That's especially true during a year like 2005, which saw not only devastating hurricanes in the United States, but a Central American mud slide, a deadly earthquake in Pakistan and the aftermath of the Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Americans made nearly $5 billion in cash donations to those causes.

But deep bonds exist between nonprofit agencies and their supporters, Mr. Ruotolo said.

"That bond is not going to be broken because another need affects the donor," he said.

In The Conference Board survey, about 75 percent of the 5,000 households surveyed made charitable contributions last year; 63 percent of those earmarked funds for the relief efforts.

Studies show that charitable giving is most often affected by the economy.

Annual surveys by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University show that 40 percent of charities report a decline in donations and charitable gifts in any given year.

Patrick Rooney, the center's director of research, said an analysis of federal tax return data for the past 60 years showed that in years of crisis, overall charitable giving actually rose. But when disparate elements such as individuals' incomes, the stock market, tax rates and corporate profits are factored in "there's not a huge effect one way or another," he said.

Locally, however, the president and chief professional officer of the United Way of Allegheny County cited the hurricane relief effort as a major reason donor-designated giving this year was down nearly 2 percent.

William J. Meyer said 2005-06 donations to United Way's Contributor Choice program, which allows donors to direct their giving to specific member organizations, are down as much as $300,000 over 2004-05 numbers.

"We're seeing declines this year, not all entirely due to the economy but also due to the effect of so much fund raising in August and September for hurricanes Katrina and Rita," he said.

"For weeks on end, you had all of our news focused on these extreme needs."

But Mr. Meyer admitted that the competition for each charitable dollar has become more of a struggle, too.

After conversations with donors during the past months, Shirl Regan, executive director of the Women's Center and Shelter of Greater Pittsburgh, agrees. Individual giving to the center was down 7 percent last year.

"What they've told us is there are so many important causes that they are aware of that they want to support," Ms. Regan said. "The choices are greater than what they've been faced with before."