Data Show Americans Give to Charity, Volunteer

Scholar argues that faith, charity and politics are linked

18 February 2005

By Jeffrey Thomas
Washington File Staff Writer

The stereotype many Europeans hold of Americans as uncharitable towards the poor is wrong, according to a scholar who has studied the link between faith, charity and politics for many years.

Another stereotype --conservatives are hard-hearted and less charitable and compassionate than liberals -- is also untrue, according to Professor Arthur Brooks.  He discussed his findings in a February 16 talk at Washington’s Heritage Foundation, a research and educational institute whose mission is to formulate and promote conservative public policies.

Brooks’ address was titled, “Are Americans Selfish? The Bond Between Faith, Philanthropy and Healthy Democracies.” He answered his own question with a “no” --Americans are generous, said Brooks, an associate professor of public administration and director of the nonprofit studies program at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Public Affairs.

He cited research data showing that Americans are, on average, significantly more generous than most other nationalities. His comparative data have been challenged by another scholar as skewed by American tax incentives, incentives that generally do not exist in Europe.  Acknowledging this, Brooks defended his analysis by suggesting that robust tax incentives may account for as much as 15 percent of American charitable contributions, which he says does not alter the validity of his comparison. 

The 70 percent of American households that make charitable contributions give, on average, $1,800 dollars per year, or 3.5 percent of their income. This amounts to about $180 billion dollars. When contributions from foundations, bequests and corporations are added, total charitable contributions in the United States amount to over $240 billion.

Only about one-third of this giving is to religious institutions.

The United States is also a nation of volunteers. In 2000, the most recent year for which data are available, 44 percent of Americans engaged in volunteer work. The dollar value of their efforts was estimated to be $240 billion. Volunteers and givers are in general the same people.

Why are these Americans generous with their money and time?

Brooks presented demographic portraits of those who give and those who do not.

Givers regularly attend religious services and are skeptical of government, particularly government efforts to redistribute income. The poorest and richest households give the most as a percentage of income.

Those who attend church regularly are much more likely to give and to volunteer even to secular causes, he said.

Nongivers, according to Brooks, tend to be young, unreligious, unmarried males who believe government should redistribute income.

Brooks noted that Utah is the state with the highest average per-capita charitable contributions, followed by Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas.

Political ideology is not the key to charity, Brooks said. Religious faith coupled with skepticism of government’s capacities seems the most important characteristic of those who give. Brooks thinks low levels of private giving and volunteering in Europe reflect European social democratic and secularist attitudes.

When he asked students in a class he teaches at Moscow State University the reason the rates of charitable giving in Russia are low, Brooks said the students responded that their parents have no religious faith and, moreover, think “the government should do it.”

Asked whether tax incentives in the United States affect charitable contributions in a positive way, Brooks said that secular giving is highly sensitive to tax incentives, while giving to the poor is highly insensitive. He noted that tax incentives amount to indirect subsidies to charities amounting to $37 billion dollars in 2003.

The propensity to give he characterized as a “quality-of-life issue” because those who give are happier and healthier and their communities are far better places to live. “Reliance on the welfare state has costs,” Brooks said. Indeed, he closed by saying that, in his view charity is a key ingredient of freedom and democracy. 

Brooks’ talk can be viewed in its entirety at http://www.heritage.org/Press/Events/ev021605a.cfm

 

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)