An essay on the impressive religion-related philanthropy of Americans, but sounding the alarm about what declining church membership may mean for charitable giving. Excerpts: Today, we are in a period of decline. Steep decline. Open antagonism toward faith is increasingly common in the U.S. There are now regular calls for crimping longstanding religious protections. New York Times religion columnist Mark Oppenheimer urged that the peak of the gay marriage debate was a good occasion to end the historic tax exemption for houses of worship. The insistence that expressions of faith must be expunged from national discussions, from education, even from sporting and other public events, is on the rise. “There are a lot of nonbelievers who want religious views kept out of the public square entirely. That’s a big problem,” pastor Tim Keller recently told Philanthropy. Underlying this resistance to religion is an assumption that faith is not important to the functioning of our nation. It has little social value, according to this view, and may even be harmful to citizens and the republic in various ways. Rising numbers of Americans believe that religious activity can be stopped or pushed entirely into private sanctums without any public cost. Those Americans are mistaken. *** . . . Pew Research Center investigators examined the behavior of a large sample of the public across a typical seven-day period. They found that among Americans who attend services weekly and pray daily, 45 percent had done volunteer work during the previous week. Among all other Americans, only 27 percent had volunteered somewhere. . . . Philanthropic studies show that people with a religious affiliation give away several times as much every year as other Americans. Research by the Lilly School at Indiana University found Americans with any religious affiliation made average annual charitable donations of $1,590, versus $695 for those with no religious affiliation. Another report using data from the Panel Study for Income Dynamics juxtaposed Americans who do not attend religious services with those who attend worship at least twice a month, and made fine-tunings to compare demographic apples to apples. The results: $2,935 of annual charitable giving for the church attenders, versus $704 for the non-attenders. . . . In addition to giving larger amounts, the religious give more often—making gifts about half again as frequently. . . . U.S. voluntary giving to the overseas poor now totals $44 billion annually—far more than the $33 billion of official aid distributed by the U.S. government. *** It’s clear that America’s unusual religiosity and extraordinary generosity are closely linked. As faith spirals downward, voluntary giving is very likely to follow. An obvious question for philanthropists is whether the causation arrow can be reversed. https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/philanthropy-magazine/less-god-less-giving
Interesting read. I will point out though that Giving USA (a source mentioned in the OP article) reported that Charitable donations were their highest ever in 2017. It doesn't reallly refute the point that the article above is making as it doesn't break down where that money is coming from or going, but I figured that it can help clarify that charitable donations in the US aren't decreasing. https://givingusa.org/giving-usa-20...sing-the-400-billion-mark-for-the-first-time/
Less God, Less Giving? I have not read the article but given who the OP is, I boldly claim Less God means More Giving.
Not really - GDP and # of people in the country was also highest in 2017. Charity should go up every year just through growth and inflation. In particular: “The increase in giving in 2017 was generated in part by increases in the stock market, as evidenced by the nearly 20 percent growth in the S&P 500. Investment returns funded multiple very large gifts, most of which were given by individuals to their foundations, including two gifts of $1 billion or more,” said Amir Pasic, Ph.D., the Eugene R. Tempel dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. “This tells us that some of our most fortunate citizens are using their wealth to make some significant contributions to the common good.” The new tax law taking effect in 2018 also reduced the value of charitable deductions, so there would have been a spike in contributions at the end of 2017 to maximize tax benefits.
Religious giving is considered charitable, but I don't think non-religious people will care if religious giving goes down. Like how many Texas Baptists are mad if fewer money is donated to Mosques? Now take that out and ask how many non-religious people care how much money flows into religious institutions? I give money to a church, but my mother and I have argued as she thinks it's outrageous I get a tax deduction on that. Doesn't consider it charitable at all.
From Charity Navigator...: Charitable giving continued its upward trend in 2017, as an estimated $410.02 billion was given to charitable causes. For the third year in a row, total giving reached record levels. This increase and the overall size of charitable contributions is further testament to the integral role charities play in our society, a role which continues to grow. How much do we give? Total giving to charitable organizations was $410.02 billion in 2017 (2.1% of GDP). This is an increase of 5.2% in current dollars and 3.0% in inflation-adjusted dollars from 2016. Giving has increased in current dollars every year since 1977, with the exception of three years that saw declines: 1987, 2008 and 2009. The average year-to-year change in total giving between 1977 and 2017 was an increase of $8.94 billion (in current dollars), making the current-dollar change in total giving between 2016 and 2017 much larger than the 40-year average. Prior to the 40-year period 1977–2017, total giving was consistently at or above 2.0% of GDP. It fell below 2.0% throughout most of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. Total giving as a percentage of GDP rose to 2.0% and above through most of the 2000s, but then dropped to 1.9% in the years 2009 to 2011. Total giving as a percentage of GDP was 2.1% for four of the five years, 2013–2017. Who is giving? As in previous years, the majority of that giving came from individuals. Specifically, individuals gave $286.65 billion, accounting for 70% of all giving and representing a 3.0% increase over 2016. Giving by bequest increased by 2.3% to $35.70 billion (9% of all donations). Foundations - which includes grants made by independent, community, and operating foundations - gave $66.9 billion (16% of all donations). This represents a 6% increase over the prior year. Corporations grew by 8% to $20.77 billion (5% of all donations). Historically, donations from individuals account for over two-thirds of all donations. If you add in gifts from bequests, then the category accounts for nearly 80% of all giving. In other words, the donating public, not big foundations or corporations, is responsible for the vast majority of annual donations. Where do the donations go? Giving to Education charities was up 6.2% to $58.9 billion (14% of all donations). Donations to Human Services charities were up 5.1% to $50.06 billion (12% of all donations). Foundations saw an increase of 6% to $45.89 billion (11% of all donations). Health charities experienced an increase of 15.5% to $38.27 billion (9% of all donations). Public-Society Benefit charities saw an increase of 7.8% to $29.59 billion (7% of all donations). Giving to International charities decreased by 4.4% to $22.97 billion (6% of all donations). Arts, Culture and Humanities saw an increase of 8.7% to $19.51 billion (5% of all donations). Charities that focus on the Environment / Animals saw an increase of 7.2% to $11.83 billion (3% of all donations). Historically, Religious groups have received the largest share of charitable donations. This remained true in 2016. With the 2.9% increase in donations this year, 31% of all donations, or $127.37 billion, went to Religious organizations. Much of these contributions can be attributed to people giving to their local place of worship.
Church membership/tithing is considered charitable giving. That's like my country membership being considered charitable.
That's true - but the article accounts for this and suggests it's true (to a smaller extent) even taking out all non-secular giving. In other words, religious people donate more per-person to secular charity than secular people, if the #'s are accurate.
Are we assuming that philanthropy is the right way to go? What if we let market forces address some of those philanthropic missions where appropriate, and let government intervention address the others? Just asking. Country clubs are generally themselves non-profits.
this is true but it doesn't make them a charity or suggest they are engaged in philanthropy https://cullinanelaw.com/nonprofit-law-basics-what-is-a-501c7-organization/
Nope. But they don't have any "profits." Also, I sense a sort of prejudice in this thread that charitable non-profits like food banks and churches are worthy efforts and other sorts of non-profits like clubs and churches are not. So, we're arguing over whether donations to a church 'really counts' depending on whether they give to the poor or mostly act as a social club. I'd say both are good endeavors. We used to have a very robust civic sphere in the US and Western Europe in the 19th and early 20th century, with charities, political organizations, fraternal organizations, sports associations, trade associations, unions, educational foundations, mutual interest societies, etc. We still have a lot of that, but it somehow feels thinner. Masonic lodges are passe, unions are reduced in most people's minds to collective bargaining vehicles, recreational organizations are left to kids. The civic sphere is anchored by a dying church, big philanthropic organizations, and charities for the poor/diseased/otherwise-unfortunate. I think capitalism is killing non-profit association. I guess I don't worry too much about a potential decline in charitable giving, particularly church giving, because I think society can compensate for its loss with other mechanisms. I think the bigger problem is the thinning of the civic sphere that builds community.
