Is charitable giving a luxury in times of recession?
More recession-and-giving news: Partly good news this time.
A recent article in The New York Sun, Recession's Gift says the impact of recession on giving is likely to be small. Here's why:
According to the 2000 Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey of 30,000 American families (see here), among religious Americans (defined as those who attend a house of worship at least weekly), a 10% decrease in income leads to almost exactly a 10% decrease in giving.
But the study found that among non-religious Americans, a 10% income decrease in income leads to a 14% decrease in charitable giving.
In other words, charitable giving is not treated as a luxury by religious donors, while it is treated somewhat as one among the non-religious. But don't worry too much. As the article says:
This is good news not just for houses of worship, but for nonreligious charities as well, because religious people are America's big givers. In 2000, by 25 percentage points, the religious people were more likely to give than secularists, the 27% of Americans who attend less than a few times per year, or have no religion. Religious people gave nearly four times more dollars per year, on average, than secularists.
These findings are very good news for religious charities. And pretty decent news for everyone else.
(Disclosure: the author of the article is my brother.)
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