America’s poor donate more, in percentage terms, than higher-income groups do, surveys of charitable giving show. What’s more, their generosity declines less in hard times than the generosity of richer givers does. “The lowest-income fifth (of the population) always give at more than their capacity,” said Virginia Hodgkinson, former vice president for research at Independent Sector, a Washington-based association of major nonprofit agencies. “The next two-fifths give at capacity, and those above that are capable of giving two or three times more than they give.” Patrick’s 2 cents – Great stories in this article about the poor giving. Blows me away.
The Huffington Post - The White House released the filings for both the President and the First Lady on Wednesday. Combined, the family brought in an adjusted gross income of $2,656,902, mostly from the sale of the President’s books. The Obamas paid $855,323 in federal income tax. And they donated $172,050 – or about 6.5% of their adjusted gross income – to 37 different charities. Follow the link to see the list of charities the Obamas gave to during 2008.
Donna Freedman will be living on just over $1,000 a month. That doesn’t sound like much — and it isn’t. Her “income,” the money she can actually count on, will be $12,084. Yet find out why Donna feels like the luckiest person in the world in this short story. A hint from Mark 12 – “She has put more into the treasury than all the others. They gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on.” Thanks to Generosity Matters blog for this story.
Christianity Today – A short but spot on articlefrom author Philip Yancy - During one of the most volatile periods, a week in which global stock markets declined by $7 trillion, I received a call from an editor at Time. ‘”You wrote a book on prayer, right?” he said. “Tell me, how should a person pray during a crisis like this?” In the course of the conversation, we came up with a three-stage approach to prayer during a financial catastrophe.
Culture Making - Andy Crouch is a friend and one of the smartest people I know. In this blog post, Andy discusses the giving strategy he and his wife Catherine follow. I thought it was unique, insightful and brief.
“One of the next things you realize is that people give money mostly to people like themselves, who lead organizations that benefit people like themselves, for causes that matter to people like themselves. And when they do escape from such self-referential giving, it is largely in response to crisis and sentimentality rather than an intentional approach to lasting investment.”
KOAA.com – The couple and their five children bill themselves as “The Cheapest Family in America” and “The Frugals.” On Thursday they showed TODAY viewers how they, too, can have everything they need and live debt-free in an expansive home in one of America’s tonier neighborhoods — on less than $45,000 a year. Patrick’s 2 cents – when I read articles like this, it makes me envious. How come I can’t do this? Would I really want to do this?
Christian Post – Fascinating Barna study on what’s happened to church giving over the last 3 months. My quick summary:
1) one out of every five households (20 percent) has decreased their giving to churches or other religious centers
2) Among those who reduced their donations to churches, 19 percent dropped their giving by as much as 20 percent; five percent decreased their funding by 21 to 49 percent; 17 percent reduced their gift by half, and 11 percent cut their support by more than half.
3) A surprisingly large proportion, 22 percent, stopped their offering to churches altogether.
4) Upscale households were most likely to reduce their giving.
5) Barna projects $3 – $5 billion less for churches in 4th quarter.
6) 35 percent of respondents said their church had offered a special talk about the financial hardship and ways to respond to it.
