In America, charitable giving increases during the months of November and December. It is believed that many charities receive as much as half of their annual donations during that period.
According to Giving USA’s annual survey of philanthropy, Americans gave more than $321 billion to charity in 2012. That amount increased to more than $335 billion in 2013, an increase of 22% since the official end of the recession in 2009.
The single largest contributor to the increase in total charitable giving in 2013, over 2012, was an increase of almost $10 billion in giving by individuals. Much of this money was given by families and estates. Although giving by foundations increased, giving by corporations declined slightly in 2013.
According to Atlantic Monthly reports, “one of the most surprising, and perhaps confounding facts of charity in America is that the people who can least afford to give are the ones who donate the greatest percentage of their income. In 2011, the wealthiest Americans (those with earnings in the top 20%) contributed on average 1.3% of their income to charity. By comparison, Americans at the base of the income pyramid (those in the bottom 20%) donated 3.2% of their income.”
One wonders, to whom is all of this money given? Analysts contend that the poor tend to give to religious organizations and social-service charities, while the wealthy prefer to give to colleges and universities and museums. Of the fifty largest individual gifts to public charities in 2011, not a single one of them went to a social-service organization, or to a charity that principally serves the poor and dispossessed.
Such analyses lead one to ask questions like, what are some of the motivating factors that encourage people to give to charities and non-profit organizations? Because of the time of year most giving is done, it would seem safe to conclude that much giving is driven by tax incentives, and not the spirit of joy that captivates the season.
From her perspective, Dr. Una Osili, Director of Research at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, “giving to education, health, and environmental and animal welfare organizations, in particular, have shown robust giving patterns in recent years.”
However, when compared with other countries, America’s giving is not that robust. According to the World Giving Index 2013, America was ranked thirteenth, with 62% of Americans reporting that they made a financial donation in the previous month. In the first place internationally is Myanmar, where 85% of its people made donations in the previous month. The United Kingdom was second with 76%.
According to Ted Hart, Chief Executive with Charities Aid Foundation, “what makes a society charitable is how we care for each other, not just the measure of how much money we give away.” Ted Hart is on to something interesting – charity is more than cash.
Jesus taught this to His disciples as they watched a crowd putting money into the temple treasury. According to the text, “many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny.”
Jesus brought this act of giving to the attention of His disciples. He said to them - “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything – all she had to live on” (Mark 12:41-44).
Jesus was not measuring the amount of money given, but rather the woman’s attitude to giving. Although she gave the smallest coins in circulation in Palestine, Jesus concluded that she “put more into the treasury...” But how could she have given more even though she gave less? It is because her giving was tantamount to sacrifice and not surplus. What mattered more to Jesus was not the amount that was given as much as the cost of the gift to the giver.
Another truth about sacrificial giving is that it is reckless – the widow in this story gave everything. Her understanding of sacrifice was not based on how much she kept, but rather, on how much she gave. Unlike so many in today’s culture, she was not driven by end-of-year tax incentives.
Another appropriate lesson for us at this time of year is the amount she gave. Had she been looking at the big donors, she would have been intimidated and would probably have decided against giving. She refused to allow the culture of superfluity to suffocate her knowledge of sacrifice.
Such an attitude is a big challenge to all of us during this season of giving. Let us be guided by sacrifice and not surplus and tax incentives.
2 comments:
Well said my Brother. The Lord continue to bless you as you draw from Joseph's Storehouse
in the days of Moses, when the heart was warm the hands were opened and the people had to be restrained from giving but in the days of Malachi,when the heart was cold and indifferent,the hands were closed and they gave the sick and the lame. How sad.
Post a Comment