Charity Giving: Who Does It?
As we are into the Christmas season of caring about and giving to others, here is something interesting (as a bit of a diversion to other topics):
A new book called "Who Really Cares?" concludes (supported by facts) conservative Americans give 30 percent more money to charity than liberal Americans. Also, religious people give up to four times more money to charity than secular people.
The difference isn’t caused by economics. A map in the book shows the wealthier states like California and New York are below average in charitable giving, while poorer states like Mississippi and New Mexico are above average.
Why this big difference in giving? Tell us what you think.
Also, vote in our current Straw Poll on the subject:
http://www.insitefulsurveys.com/Survey.asp?SI=934639912194
P.S.: We still have some interesting blogging going on in a couple of the threads below this one. Scroll down and add your point of view.
posted by Blog Master @ 10:54 AM
37 Comments:
That's an easy one. I read the summary of the books conclusions. Liberals expect the government to take care of every social problem, so why give to charity.
The book confirms what I have known for over 3/4 of a century. Liberals are takers not givers.
We need to be cautious about contributing to any charity. There is just too much mismanagement and shady activities. We have local examples. Check them out before you write out the check.
Don
(OTOW)
Conservatives donate money...liberals donate time and effort. Many charities are organized and run by some of our more liberal citizens. I think that is how they see their contribution being made. One thing for sure, the organizers and bosses of the charities are pretty good at getting the conservative and religious segments to donate money!
“Volunteers to Distribute Funds Needed”
We just received this.
United Way of Marion County is looking for a dozen more volunteers to help spend money! These volunteers give their time to help with United Way’s Allocations Committee. This group of community members evaluates local agency programs and recommends funding. The money comes from the 2006 fundraising campaign currently underway.
Allocations volunteers are asked to give a total of about 35 hours of time (during weekday business hours) spread out between January and March. A training session is held in January to provide the information volunteers will need. Volunteers learn to read budgets, evaluate programs, visit local programs, and recommend funding amounts to the United Way Board of Directors.
For more information or to sign up to volunteer, you can contact Barbara Bombara, United Way Director of Community Solutions, by calling 732-9696, ext. 204, or by e-mail to bbombara@uwmc.org.
{Conservatives, liberals, individuals of any religion or no religion welcome. Just adding a little Blog Master humor!}
SERIOUSLY: please consider giving the United Way some of your time.
anonymous (7:08 PM)-- that’s because conservatives are too busy out making all of that money to give away and don’t have any time to spare.
If contributions to the campaigns of Democrat candidates is any indicator, and it probably is, then the book is on the button about who contributes to charities.
LOCAL UNITED WAY IS A PRETTY WELL RUN ORGANIZATION. ENCOURAGE YOU TO GET INVOLVED WITH THEM. GIVE THEM THE TIME, EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE THE MONEY.
I'm with Politico. At least for Marion County.
John Stossel (sp.?) had a show on TV this past week on the same subject, Cheap In America. His data also was similar to what is in the article quoted here.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Removed SPAM posting.
Mike,
Also my experience.
Blogman,
There are some Spam postings on some of the other columns.
Based on my work at my church, I would go along with the conclusions in the book.
Those over 65 are big contributors to charity. I read this several months ago in a NY Times article. Believe they are the largest in mumbers and amount.
Liberals are takers not givers!
What a crock that is.
I am a L-I-B-E-R-A-L and I give
on a weekly basis. Not to a church
but in some small way, somehow.
There is always someone with less
than myself.
Charity is from the heart and I
give to United Way, March of Dimes,
Red Cross, even the blood bank.
I send money to those who need it more than I do. I have no money but can always find a way to help
those less fortunate.
I don't have enough to give away to
take a big fat charitable tax break
on my big fat salary.
I don't even claim what I do gift, at tax time because it is my choice to give.
Ohhhh LIBERAL ... like a dirty word.
BUSH AND DICK ... nows that's dirty!!
There was a comment about giving by the over 65 year olds.
One in 10 adults age 65 or older donated $5000 or more to charities last year. Following the old-timers as big contributors were those age 35-49 (9%) and 50-64 (7%).
So don’t ignore us old fogies!
(Source: “AARP Bulletin”, 12/06)
Modern Religion for the most part is nothing but hate, enslavement
of the human spirit, and poverty
of self
It is truly heinous and will be
the demise of the human species
How many wars in the name of religion
DUH!!!!!
Last year Community With A Heart had some problems with its operations. Anyone care to tell me whether it is a safe charity to contribute to this year? From what I read, it is back on track.
I'd suggest you wait a year to see whether or not they have got their act together.
“STRAW POLL UPDATE”
Results as of this evening. Participants to date: 43
“Do you agree or disagree with the premise that Conservatives and the more-religious individuals give more money to charity than do Liberals and the less-religious individuals?”
Agree 49%
Disagree 51%
[Note: We’ll run the Straw Poll for another week.]
Looks like blog people don't agree with the book's conclusions, so far.
Check out this article from our neighbor newspaper the Gainesville Sun on political/religious leanings and charitable giving. Puts a local perspective on the issues raised in the book.
http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061213/LOCAL/61213008/-1/news
Makes sense to me. It is religion not political party that influences who gives to charity and who doesn’t. Party comes into play as an end result of giving and the fact is that more religious individuals tend to be conservatives than liberals.
Here is what one of the Alachua county charity heads had to say about religion in the article that was linked to:
“The Salvation Army of Gainesville, for instance, receives donations from people of all political stripes, but there does tend to be more faith-based contributors, said Terri Bishop, the chapter's social service director.”
TV 20 News reported that someone stole $5,000 worth of Christmas presents from the Gainesville Salvation Army. We really have some sorry people in this world to do something like that.
Does charity giving include gifts to churches? Usually it does in such statistics. No doubt there are more tithers to churches. Can someone find stats on non-church charitable giving, since many churches spend their receipts on themselves - hardly "charitable."
Rather than giving to a charity like CWAH, just give DIRECTLY to the people they run stories about in the newspaper. That way you can be sure the money gets to who needs it.
“MEETING”
A new group has been formed to help Marion County non-profit organizations get the word out about the valuable work they do. The Marion County Community Outreach Council was formed to allow all of the non-profit organizations in the county to pool resources and work together. A breakfast meeting is scheduled for:
DATE: Wednesday, January 10, 2007
TIME: 8:30 AM
PLACE: United Way Conference Room
If you are interested, or know someone who might want to attend, please spread the word.
For more information and to reserve your seat, please contact Anita Winters at: awinter@elc.marion.org or call (352) 369-2315.
“STRAW POLL: FINAL RESULTS”
Final results, as of this evening. Participants: 71
“Do you agree or disagree with the premise that Conservatives and the more-religious individuals give more money to charity than do Liberals and the less-religious individuals?”
Agree 52%
Disagree 48%
Thanks for your participation!
Noticed that CWAH fundraising is off. Last year, nearly $128,000 was raised. To date this year, and late in the season, about $28,000 has been raised. The message: poor oversight and bad PR hurts!
They may not make last years results, but they are starting to bring in about $18,000 a day. That will get them close if they stay at that rate.
Wonder if anyone was at the Randy Harris-Chuck Pardee Christmas Breakfast yesterday where contributions are taken up for Interfaith. I completely forgot about the feast until I ran into Brand Dinkins in Publix. He said about 300 were on hand for the early morning breakfast on the Ocklawaha River.
This is one of the best gatherings of the year -- the food is outstanding, outstanding, I say; the fellowship is great, and they have raised some big time funds for Interfaith.
In my book, Interfaith is the single best group in the county for charitable outreach, followed closely by the Salvaion Army and Brothers Keeper. Any excess funds would be well spent with extremely low overhead and direct results.
Mrry Christmas to all my Blogger friends, God Bless.
--pwf
I don’t think I saw anything in the Star Banner about the Pardee and Harris effort. I assume we will see some coverage in that feature column about fundraisers on Sunday. Sure we will!!
You are surely joking .. . hahahahahah!
--pwf
No article on the Harris/Pardee fundraiser in the paper. You guessed right.
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