Philanthropy

I watched 20/20 last night since they had a special on giving and charitable donations. The special was great but unfortunately not surprising. I would encourage you to read the article by clicking here, and see the contributing factors. It seems that several factors contribute to who gives, and who gives more. Not surprising is that conservatives give much more than liberals. This shouldn't surprise anyone since liberals want the government to do the giving. John Stossel asked one of the researchers if there was any one dominant factor in determining how much someone will give. Here is the answer:

Finally, the single biggest predictor of whether someone will be charitable is their religious participation.

Religious people are more likely to give to charity, and when they give, they give more money: four times as much. And Arthur Brooks told me that giving goes beyond their own religious organization:

"Actually, the truth is that they're giving to more than their churches," he says. "The religious Americans are more likely to give to every kind of cause and charity, including explicitly non-religious charities."

For the experiment at the end of the article they placed a Salvation Army bucket in Sioux Falls and one in San Francisco. Sadly, the Sioux Falls bucket not only won by percentage but also had more money at the end of the day. The people passing by the San Francisco bucket outnumbered the Sioux Falls bucket by 100 to 1.

The point is that if you want things to change or be different or better start with yourself and your family. I don't want anyone else doing my giving for me, I'll take care of it myself. I enjoy giving to the charities, organizations and missionaries I support. I also enjoy donating the things I no longer use instead of having garage sales and such. If you aren't a giver, give it a shot and if you are thanks for helping the world be a better place instead of just talking about it.