Religious Conservatives are more charitable than Secular Liberals

Parent Cafe
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<p><a href=“Beliefnet”>Beliefnet;

<p>There is a new book out by a liberal academic on this topic. What do you guys think. This article reminds me of a list that philantropy magazine published that had alot of “red” states at the top of the most generous states and then the top 5 nonprofit that give the most are:</p>

<p>YMCAs in the United States ($4.8 billion)
Catholic Charities USA ($3.2 billion)
Salvation Army ($3.1 billion)
American Red Cross ($3.1 billion)
United Jewish Communities ($2.9 billion)</p>

<p>(Source: The NonProfit Times, November 2005, based on total amount of income)</p>

<p>Interesting to note that 3/5 have a religious affiliation. Also Jews only make up 2% of America I think, and yet the United Jewish Communities gives so much.</p>

<p>I am not making any judgments, merely offering statistics. I myself am not sure why the results are the way they are, but I felt they were interesting considering how much we have been discussing religion on this board lately</p>

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<p>Personally my donations are spread around to a lot of organizations- some even have a church or religious foundation- but I happen to think they do very good work- Northwest Medical Teams for example
I could probably think of about 20 organizations that I give to offhand & that isn’t counting the ones that come to the door and I write a check to but don’t regularly donate.
Im wondering if the religious groups attract more money from their participants because their interests are similar- but us secular types like to have more control and guide our money to where we think it could do the most benefit ourselves?</p>

<p>( for instance look how little they spend on administrative or fundrasing costs
<a href=“http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=search.summary&orgid=4070[/url]”>Charity Navigator - Rating for Medical Teams International)</p>

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<p>

Perhaps you didn’t mean it, emerald, but this statement has a real condescending tone…as if all those who are religious followers are a bunch of lemmings who would blindly hand over cash to religious charities wihtout checking it out. Sure, there are plenty of those types out there. But it’s not just religious followers.</p>

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<p>I don’t think religious types are necessarily more charitable; for example, many people give to the Red Cross or Salvation Army, even if they are not affiliated with a religious group. I think using those stats that you have provided tells nothing about people’s religious background, and certainly not that religious types are charitable and that “secular liberals” are not.</p>

<p>What a divisive conclusion to draw. Silly.</p>

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<p>A few small points:</p>

<p>Your list is distorted because of the way United Way is organized, as a federation of separate local organizations. On a combined basis, United Way raised about $4 billion last year. There is probably some double-counting with The Red Cross, since that’s a UW agency, too, and gets a lot of its money through it.</p>

<p>If you check the actual list, you’ll see that Catholic Charities gets about 2/3 of its money from government grants and contracts. It does not raise $3 B from the public.</p>

<p>The YMCA gets the vast majority of its money from selling memberships, just like the health clubs with which it competes. (It does other things too, especially with youth sports.) Very little of the Y money is “charitable”; mostly it’s people supporting their own lifestyles.</p>

<p>Some percentage of religious-oriented giving is like that, too. I give a lot of money to my synagogue and to my kids’ schools and my schools. I get charitable deductions for that, but it’s really supporting the community that I feel part of, not transferring my resources to people in dire need. I wouldn’t dispute the main point in your post. I am in awe of the fundraising abilities of conservative religious communities, like LDS or the black evangelical churches. Their members really seem to give 'til it hurts, and not just to the church itself but to helping people as well.</p>

<p>And UJC – nice try, golani, but it’s not in the top 5 on the list you cite (it’s #6, behind Goodwill). However, there’s no question it’s an impressive fundraiser – #2 or 3 (depending on how you count United Way) in public giving. I’ll also tell you that I am pretty familiar with local Jewish fundraising, and it has very, very little to do with religious conviction.</p>

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<p>A clarification to the YMCA’s affiliation…The YMCA no longer ties itself to the Christian faith, just as it is not a men’s only organization anymore.</p>

<p>I was a counselor (~6 years ago) at the YMCA camp I attended as a child and was appaled that they wouldn’t even allow me to touch the Bible when my campers were having a rough time in their life (one of my resident campers confided in me that her father beat her). I was also appaled at a number of other things this camp was doing that were more on the ‘illegal’ end of business. </p>

<p>However, when I was a camper (12-18 years ago), we had regular ‘values’ lessons that centered around Biblical principles, watched Christian movies (even Petra music videos), and a nightly Bible lesson in our cabins. The YMCA’s new slogan is “We build strong kids, strong families, and strong communities” and promote strong communities as opposed to strong Christian communities.</p>

<p>I doubt much of the donations to the Y were from the ‘religious right’.</p>

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<p>United Way benefits from being promoted by many local employers who urge their staff to contribute.</p>

<p>I donate to both religious and non-religious charities depending on their missions. I would describe myself as agnostic. I don’t think the religion (or lack thereof) of donors can be inferred from their contributions.</p>

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<p>United Way contributions are almost extorted at some of the big Fortune 100 companies. They want 100% participation & it will reflect badly on any employee who opts out. I got plenty of grief about it. I don’t like umbrella charities because funding goes to many things I am not comfortable with or organizations that don’t spend the donations wisely. Even with the option to designate through UW, I’ve always passed & made donations directly. Remember the scandals with embezzlement at United Way?</p>

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<p>What about this quoted from the article. “To make his point forcefully, Brooks admits he cut out a lot of qualifying information.” And given that the book’s only endorsement cited is from Prof Harvey Mansfield leads me to question the author’s objectivity. However the publisher, Basic Books, is well respected. Maybe i will give it a read if it is purchased by the library.</p>

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<p>You do not have to look at the list, just read the article about the new book, that has collected 10 years of data on this topic. </p>

<p>I think the reason he cut out alot of qualifying information was to make the book more readable.</p>

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<p>I don’t think there’s any point in attempting to determine what groups are more charitable than others. Who really cares? Every individual must decide for him/herself what organizations are deserving of their charitable contributions. We give to many different charities every year on a regular basis and we would probably be classified as agnostics, if one were to ask. My H is on the United Way cabinet in our city. Their goal this year is to raise $100million for the city agencies and they are well on their way. There are hundreds of agencies and thousands of individuals who will benefit from this generosity. He, as well as other senior executives in many of the city’s business, donate hundreds of hours a year in these efforts. They are not alone. Hundreds of others also donate their time in the campaign process at many, many businesses. We have never seen any evidence of any employee feeling "extorted’ or having it reflect poorly on them if they don’t participate. Any donations are gratefully accepted and appreciated. SS, if you were getting “grief” about it, that was coming from the attitude of your employer and certainly not something which is being imposed by the UW itself. In any case, the good that these organizations do in communities to help on all kinds of issues is so impressive. I visit different agencies every year and am constantly amazed at the generosity of spirit so many people have in the work that they do to help others. </p>

<p>One piece of advice I always give for people who are looking to make charitable donations is to ask for a breakdown on the administrative costs involved. With many so-called charities, the recipients end up receiving a very small percentage of what is donated. We had for many years supported a charity involving wheelchair athletes, because a family friend had been involved. One year my husband received a brochure detailing their financial statements and less than 20% of donations actually reached the intended recipients! That was our last donation to that organization. Research and knowledge, as with most issues, is invaluable.</p>

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<p>The grief, as I said, came from my employer. H faced it, too, at another Fortune 100. I was hounded every day for weeks by the designated UW cheerleader in our department. Human resources made efforts to change my mind, as well. They even suggested I contribute $1.00, just so they could claim 100% participation.</p>

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<p>I’m sorry you faced that, SS. As I said, I haven’t experienced it, nor do I know anyone else who has. It’s unfortunate that some employers feel that they must reach 100% participation. That’s certainly not the spirit which is handed down from those ‘at the top’ in these campaigns. In fact, there’s no actual benefit/bonus/reward/reason to insist on it in one’s office. I just don’t understand that mindset with some people. Anyway, it’s a shame because it obviously discouraged you from making a donation which, undoubtedly, would have helped many people.</p>

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<p>Well, it wasn’t the pressure that discouraged me. (That came after I said no, so my decision had been already made.) It was the embezzlement at the United Way. And my strong dislike of umbrella charities. I don’t need a middle man to direct my charitible donations; I like to pick my own. The UW in our area can be very political. Some very worthy charities lost long-standing support because the UW was looking to move in another direction. No mismanagement of funds or incompetence was alleged, just money yanked.</p>

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<p>Is it the accounting practices issue or the Aramony fraud to which you’re referring? I’m curious because the Aramony case has got to be close to fifteen years ago now. I understand how some may not like the idea of ‘umbrella charities’, but the reality is that many of the small community based charities which rely on UW funding simply do not have the ability to fundraise on their own. They would not exist if they didn’t receive this type of funding. I also like to designate my own groups to which I donate, and for portions of our UW donations, we DO do this, as well as for the many other charitable groups we support. Many years ago, I was also a skeptic of the UW but after being involved with many of their agencies for so long, and seeing the wonderful work that these agencies do, I’m very happy that UW exists and that so many people, and businesses, support them. That’s the thing about charitable donations, there’s never a shortage of opportunities out there from which to choose! :)</p>

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<p>but us secular types like to have more control and guide our money to where we think it could do the most benefit ourselves?
Perhaps you didn’t mean it, emerald, but this statement has a real condescending tone…as if all those who are religious followers are a bunch of lemmings who would blindly hand over cash to religious charities wihtout checking it out. Sure, there are plenty of those types out there. But it’s not just religious followers</p>

<p>I didn’t mean to offend anyone- but I probably will anyway-but its the same reason why I don’t give large amounts of money to organizations like the Democratic party- but I will give money to candidates or smaller organizations that I really believe in- I would rather give to a smaller group-because I want to have more control & I feel like I can see more accountablity.
Its like when people ask me to give money to the Alliance for Education- ( which manages the money for seattle schools) I say heck no- because I don’t have any idea where that money is going to go-</p>

<p>I know that many churches require tithing of 10% of income, which I don’t have a problem with , because it is voluntary to belong to that church or not, and I don’t know if the church then earmarks some of that for community donations. I think though that our community ( well not * our community* because Seattle is the great unchurched) but the larger community has as a value that they tithe and donate to churches.</p>

<p>The secular arena, doesn’t necessarily have that.
I wasn’t raised with a volunteer ethos ( although my father did work on a friends political committee) and I wasn’t really even aware of money we donated to charities- My grandparents were even lousy tippers!</p>

<p>I didn’t start becoming a big community volunteer, until my daughter attended private schools- whose parents were among the big volunteers in the area- and I realized that this was a way to really make a big difference( the Gates foundation for example- secular- but you notice that they are their own foundation and control where the money goes- rather than making huge donations to the red cross * although they may do that as well* )</p>

<p>Churches- are a community, that in many areas, volunteering and commitment of time and money are part of why they exist.
We have people in our area for example- who are barely hanging on, they don’t get nearly enough support from social and health services, and area churches, make life a bit easier for them.</p>

<p>I wasn’t saying that if you are religious you make bad choices- but to believe in a certain theology, you have to be able to make a leap of faith-just like if you have a financial advisor make decisions for you ;)</p>

<p>Perhaps I am just OCD as well as ADD, and I want to control everything.</p>

<p>I donate to Northwest Medical Teams for example- because they do very good work that I believe in. For me- although certainly not for them, the fact that they are spreading the word of Jesus through their work, is beside the point- I don’t donate money for proseletizing, but I do for their health care.
So perhaps I am contradicting myself- Idon’t know- i was just trying to think of a way to explain the differences?</p>

<p>However volunteer secular organizations are becoming better known and widespread they just don’t have the history that some of the religiously affliated organizations do</p>

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<p>here’s a nice story:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/18/secret.santa.ap/index.html[/url]”>http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/11/18/secret.santa.ap/index.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>that is a nice story-
This story is more to the thread of “books that change your life” but…
<a href=“http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15695171/[/url]”>http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15695171/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>EK, thanks for sharing that link. I’m adding that to my shopping list for Christmas. One of my Ds will love it. Shhhhh, don’t tell! :)</p>

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<p>When I read the article, I did a bit of research</p>

<p>The author is not “liberal”, and interesting that not many other academics have jumped on the band wagon</p>

<p>I give to a wide range of causes, and if i give to the church, it is for the hungry, the homeless, not to buy new pews</p>

<p>In a way, giving to your own church is like taking care of your home…in a way its taking care of your own community, which is just fine</p>

<p>But one should be intellecually honest about that</p>

<p>Wonder if any consideration was done in the book about megachurches and the donations</p>