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middle photo by Michael
Jacobson-Hardy
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by Dana Gillette
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We are all givers. When financial gifts to help out family and friends are added to gifts to charitable causes, almost everyone in the U.S. gives. Yet the media profile of givers, or donors, is much more narrow – a small handful of wealthy individuals or prominent foundations making very large gifts. But a true picture of giving in the U.S. runs much deeper, and spans the class spectrum.
There is a long tradition throughout the world of people helping each other. For many, giving is a way of life. But who gives and to what?
Migrant workers—the lifeline for millions of families in Latin American and the Caribbean—sent home a record $69.2 billion last year, reported the Inter-American Development Bank. This number tops the combined giving by foundations ($38.5 billion) and corporations (15.6%) in 2007, as tracked in Giving USA. Estimates of remittances range as high as 10 percent of immigrants’ household income.
Giving USA reports annually on giving to charitable institutions in the areas of religion, human services, health, public society benefit, arts and culture, international affairs, environment and animals. Data for 2007 (the most recent year reported) indicates that U.S. giving hit a record $306 billion. Of that, close to 75% was from individuals. Add in money people donated through their wills and their family foundations and individual giving rises to 88% of 2007 contributions.
How we get our money and how we feel about it impacts how much we give. A 1994 report cited in “Charitable Giving: How Much, by Whom, to What, and How?” (Havens, 2006) indicates higher levels of giving from earned wealth than inherited wealth – up to six times greater. While another study reported that people who were worried about their financial security gave much less than those who were not concerned – regardless of their resources, people who feel secure give larger percentages of their income and net worth.
“Except at the very highest levels, families at every income and wealth are about equally philanthropic in terms of percentage of income contributed… 98 percent of families with incomes under $300,000 tend to contribute about the same proportion of their income to charitable causes, roughly 2.3 percent.” (Havens, 2006) For those above $300,000, this jumps to 4.4 percent of income, which makes up 37 percent of all charitable giving.
While there are various perceptions about total giving by people from different ethnic groups, there is little total difference. “When informal and formal giving were combined… the effects of income, education, and immigration status are statistically taken into account, differences in behavior among whites, Latinos, Asian/Pacific Islanders, and African Americans virtually disappear.” (Havens, 2006)
Innovative programs that engage donors of color are bringing new voices and perspectives to community solutions. In 2003, Darryl Lester of HindSight Consulting, Inc. (http://www.hindsightconsulting.org) began intentional work with young adult African Americans in the American South to focus how they engage and give back to their communities. “For many of these young adult leaders,” notes Darryl, “their intellectual and financial capital was undervalued and not being tapped or acknowledged.” Along with the support of various sponsors, HindSight organized these individuals into collective groups known as “giving circles” to strategically invest their time, talent and treasures back into their communities in an effort to address issues of race and equity. Other giving circles supporting communities of color include the Young Professionals Giving Circle of the Latino Community Foundation in San Francisco and the Black Women for Black Girls Giving Circle at the 21st Century Fund in New York. Read how to start your own giving circle in the article “10 Ideas for Forming and Running a Cross-Class Giving Circle,” by Jenny Ladd.
While more than $300 billion in giving is impressive, several groups are attempting to up the ante. Bolder Giving, a national initiative based in Massachusetts asserts, “We live in a time of historic crisis and opportunity, when contributions of time and money could make a crucial difference. Yet most of us – even if well-off – give at a fraction of our capacity.” Bolder Giving offers inspiring stories of people giving well beyond the national average. Resource Generation, a NYC-based non-profit, seeks to increase giving by young people with wealth. And more than 85 funds and foundations specific to different racial, ethnic and tribal groups are increasing giving by and to their own communities.
Despite the current recession, the U.S. remains one of the most prosperous countries in the world. As John Hunting, one of the givers profiled on Bolder Giving's website, states, “I believe that it is immoral to hoard money when global warming is on the verge of destroying the eco-systems we depend on.” With our collective resources, we can solve the most pressing problems of our time. We encourage you to give, and to give generously as you can.
Note: “Charitable Giving: How Much, by Whom, to What, and How?” by John J. Havens, Mary A. O’Herlihy, and Paul Schervish was published in The Non-Profit Sector: A Research Handbook, edited by Walter W. Powell & Richard Steinberg, Yale Press, 2006. It is available online at http://www.bc.edu/research/cwp/publications/by-topic/motivation.html.
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