Sustaining Pastoral Excellence

Giving USA 2010: Religious Giving Virtually Flat August 24, 2010

The Giving USA Foundation recently released its 55th annual report analyzing charitable giving in the United States. While overall giving was down -3.6% (-3.2% adjusted for inflation), giving to religion was down just -0.7% (-0.4% adjusted for inflation). Giving by individuals, which accounts for 75% of all charitable giving, was also flat. The estimated total charitable giving for 2009 was $303.75 billion. Researched and written by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, a free executive summary, individual subsector reports, the full report and presentation materials are available at http://www.givingusa2010.org/.

So what do the numbers mean? Giving to religion remains resilient. During the past two years giving to religion has been virtually flat in terms of current dollars but down -3.3% when adjusted for inflation.  During this same period, overall charitable giving declined by -5.5% when adjusted for inflation.

However, Giving USA 2010 underscores an important reality for religious practitioners; the religious landscape relative to faith and giving is changing the way donations are both given and gathered.  A few examples:

• From 1969 to 2009, the portion of charitable dollars going to religion declined from 50% to 33%.

• The top five religious groups making The Chronicle of Philanthropy Annual Top 400 Public Charities were from the Evangelical world.

• While giving to religion steadily increased from 1969 to 2009, the increase was at a slower rate than giving to other types of charities.

• Faith traditions are blurring as many people attend multiple places of worship; in the meantime, more individuals are embracing beliefs and practices from divergent religions.

• There are significant generational shifts in giving habits and practices as well as in church attendance between those over 65 and those under 40.

• The 1980s and 90s witnessed the explosion of what is called the  “megachurch.” Amidst the Great Recession, megachurches made headlines with massive staff reductions, salary reductions and budget shortfalls.

How should religious practitioners plan for the future? With savvy caution.Beware of either budgeting your optimism or bowing to your pessimism. We are at a time in history when the “wait and see” approach may well spell wisdom.  Only time will tell whether or not we will return – and if so, how quickly – to the boom years of the fifties and late nineties or to the more sobering decades of the seventies and eighties.

Contributing to the tempestuous climate, competition for the religious dollar has dramatically intensified as the number of reporting charities in the religious subsector have increased 89% from 1997 to 2007, even as giving to religion overall continues on a historical downward trend (see graph below).  As religious nonprofits compete for the shrinking charitable dollar, they will have to learn how to describe their unique mission with clarity, simplicity and arresting passion.

Copyright © The Lake Institute on Faith & Giving