Ask the Readers: How Much Do You Spend on Charitable Giving?
Published on - September 7th, 2012 (by J.D. Roth) The deeper I get into the third stage of personal finance, the more I think about my responsibilities to help others who are in need. For years, Get Rich Slowly readers have been encouraging me to contribute to charity, but I’ve always been reluctant to do so. This wasn’t part of my family culture as a boy (we were the ones in need), so it’s been a struggle to come to terms with it as an adult.
But come to terms with it, I have. Over the past few years, I’ve discovered ways that I can give, even if these contributions aren’t always financial (and even if the contributions aren’t to traditional charities).
For today’s “Ask the Readers” column, as part of the ongoing “how much do you spend on?” series, I’d like to know: How much do you spend on charitable giving? How much of what you give is cash? How much is in goods (like canned food donations)? How much time do you give? And, more importantly, how do you determine which causes to support? There are so many worthy organizations — how can you possibly pick which one gets what you have to give?
- How much do you spend on food?
- How much do you spend on clothes?
- How much do you spend on gifts?
- How much do you spend on health insurance?
- How much do you spend on housing?
- How much do you spend on kids?
- How much do you spend on fun?
- How much do you spend on self improvement?
Look for more informal surveys like this in the future!
Five years ago, I wrote about an article from the New York Times in which philosopher Peter Singer explored the question: “How much should a billionaire give? How much should you?” The original article (and the comments on my post) are a great read, but to cut to the chase, Singer concluded:
- The top 0.01 percent of U.S. taxpayers — 14,400 people earning more than $5,000,000 — ought to donate 33% of their income.
- The rest of the top 0.1 percent of U.S. taxpayers — 129,600 people earning a minimum of $1.1 million/year — ought to donate 25% of their income.
- The top 0.5 percent of U.S. taxpayers — 474,900 people earning at least $407,000 — ought to give 20% of their earnings.
- The rest of the top one percent — 719,900 taxpayers earning at least $276,000 — should donate 15%.
- The rest of the top 10 percent — nearly 13 million taxpayers who earn an more than $92,000 — should give 10%.
How much do I give? Well, despite the fact that I’m learning to give, I still don’t contribute much cash to charity. Instead, I’ve been volunteering my time to various causes that move me. So far this year, I’ve spent just under 100 hours doing various types of volunteer work (almost all of which has been related to my new-found Spanish skills).
That said, I’ve also contributed money to various causes. I say “causes” because I can’t rightly claim these as charities. Instead, they’re friends or projects that need financial support.
How about you? How much do you give and to whom? Tell us how you reached this place, and where you hope to go with your charitable giving in the future.
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I give $50 a month on auto pay to my favorite charity, I recently upped it after hearing that recent NPR session on giving and who gives most. I also sit on the board of this charity so I give of my time, I also give $100 at Thanksgiving, $100 during our annual fundraiser and we sponsor a family during the holiday season which runs about $200. So that is about $1000 just to one charity. We also attend the annual ball, but most of the time my company buys the tickets for us, but there are costs for dress and silent auction, these are not included in my total.
I also give at least $50-$100 to two medical research charities each year that are dedicated to treatment and cure of medical issues that impact my family.
Also at the holiday time I give to a local charity that does a wreath fundraiser so I give and cross off my holiday list, that runs about $200.
I also donate at least $200 to my University, $100 to my sorority and $100 to a charity related to my career. I don’t really count those as charities, but they are, the University and Sorority money goes to scholarships and the other $100 to my career organization goes to serving people in the community that are underserved by my profession.
During the year I give here and there to the local neighborhood kids and friends that are raising funds, so I’d say another $100 in misc. giving.
Total is about $1900 a year for us.
We could give more, and I used to, as an individual before I was married, contribute more. When we started paying more attention to our personal finances, one of the first things to go, when we paid down all our unsecured debt in 2007, was significant charitable giving. If we had $55,000+ in unsecured debt, which we did, we had to focus on ourselves first and get that taken care of. After we killed the debt in 12 and half months, we were focused on increasing our emergency fund and saving for a nused car and other goals including maxing out retirement accounts, etc. We have found that charitable giving is just not on the top of our list when we create our goals each year. I, personally, would like to increase our giving and over the last couple of years have done so. Mr. Sam would rather increase our net worth.
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Every month, I have a certain amount automatically transferred from my free Checking account, into my free “Donation Fund” Savings account. When I receive requests from friends and family when they “Walk for X” and “Bike for Z”, I send them $100 from that fund. In December, I send what is left to charities of my choice. Lately it has been to Little Sisters of the Poor.
I find the monthly automatic withdrawals into my Donation Fund make it easier to set aside money for charity. By year’s end, that can be a lot of money! Like many things in personal finance, we increase our wealth or debt little bits at a time.
Finally, a year or so ago, one of the 5% cash back credit cards had “Charitable Giving” as a category. I put all of what was left in my fund on the card as a donation to LSOTPoor, paid off the card with the cash in my Donation Fund, and got $75 back to kickstart the Donation Fund for the next year!
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I do the same thing
I found that making monetary donations part of my monthly budget helped better align my cash flow and my values. I have causes I’m passionate about, but I enjoy contributing to causes that my friends and family are passionate about too.
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My mother died and left a nice, fun amount of money to me, $60,000. We have no debt and really haven’t ever had debt since we’ve been married, and so, there is nothing to pay off.
I gave away a lot of this.
I’ve had fun giving away more than 20% of it so far. DH doesn’t like to give much and so I’ve been able to use my mom’s money free from the usual negotiation that takes place when it is “our” money.
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10% to our church (tithing)
0.5% to the local food bank
May give 0.5% to our undergrad residence house, a 501(c)3 that helps MIT students keep housing costs low.
Our household income is roughly $200k/year, but we have been bouncing back from my husband’s nearly 2-year stretch of unemployment.
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I don’t usually give in cold, hard cash. The charities that I do give cash to have included Red Cross, my child’s school and to a few select fundraisers. My husband does some Kickstarter stuff also, which isn’t necessarily “charity” but it helps an entrepreneur realize a goal or a dream that they might not otherwise achieve.
Otherwise, we give in these ways:
I donated 22 gallons of my “extra” milk to the milk bank in my state while I nursed my daughter.
My husband donates blood or plasma as often as he is allowed, as he has one of the rarer blood types and so they love his blood!
My daughter donated her beautiful platinum blonde ponytail to Locks for Love.
We donate our good condition clothing and household items to Goodwill or the animal shelter which runs its own charity shop.
I donate maternity/baby items to a resource center.
I give away stuff on Freecycle that charities won’t take yet are usable.
I make scarves, hats and afghans for the needy and donate the to a homeless shelter.
I donate personal care products to a domestic violence shelter.
I donate food to the food bank.
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22 gallons of milk?! That’s amazing! Well done
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Yes, m’am! I was a regular Dairy Queen while nursing my daughter. Due to complications with my son’s delivery (shoulder dystocia, broken clavicle and facial trauma for him, and two severe complications for me that required re-hospitalization), I wasn’t able to donate milk again due to a medication I had to take for 6 months. I was able to nurse him, but the milk bank has pretty tight restrictions on what medication can be in a donor’s system.
I’m expecting my third baby and I’d love to be able to donate again, although I really don’t like pumping. My son’s complications prevented him from nursing effectively for 3 months and so I pumped quite a bit at home and at work.
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Oh, I forgot to mention giving blood, too! Donating blood makes me feel wonderful!
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I was a bit shocked at the “recommended percentages” for giving among the wealthiest of people. I suspect very few people in those categories actually give that much of their income to charity.
I fall within the top 10% of income earners. I also have a lot of debt that I have been snowballing since 2010. I was doing quite well on the debt snowball when I retired from the military in Oct, 2010. Though I had searched and searched for employment in the months leading up to retirement, I did not find a job until about two and a half months after retirement. During those two and a half months, I added to my debt. My military retirement was enough to cover my mortgage and utilities, and not much else.
With the new job came a move half way across the country, thus incurring more debt. The new job paid well, but the cost of living in the new location (DC) was way over the top. Nevertheless, I started working on the debt snowball again, only this time the debt was much larger. I hated the job in DC and started looking for another job after working there about three or four months. This time I had the luxury of looking for employment while still employed. I was fortunate enough to find a better fitting and better paying job, but it meant another move, this time to Syracuse, NY.
So I moved again, and incurred some more debt, but not nearly as much as during the previous move. The cost of living is much less in Syracuse than in DC, especially in the housing market. So I am once again working on my debt snowball. I expect to be free of consumer debt some time next year.
In the meantime, back to charitable giving. I intend to give 10% of my income to charity once I am out of debt (except for the mortgage). While I am still paying off debt, I am giving about 3% of my income to charity and an hour or two of my time every few months. I recently committed to spend one hour every week with a disadvantaged student, tutoring in math and mentoring. I am excited for this to begin early next month.
I have already created a budget for when I have paid off my consumer debt, and it includes 10% for charity.
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You sir, have already given so much. Freedom isn’t free. Thank you for your service.
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$11,626 – just shy of 10%. Includes donations to Dr’s w/o Borders, local children’s hospital, a school for homeless children, a meal delivery program for AIDS sufferers, Red Cross, local (down the street) food pantry, a re-foresting group, our church and our school.
This doesn’t include many hours of volunteering.
It would be hard to ever tip the balance of giving more than we’ve received in this life.
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11.000 is my yearly income. Good for you!
I’ve got $75 in kiva.org (so it’s more of a loan with no interest, but it could fall through and I will re-lend it when I get 25 back), and I occasionally add the extra 1 dollar when I pay for something on Ebay.I’m busy getting debt free with a decent emergency fund and some savings and this is all I can miss – I do feel like I’m doing my part even though it’s not a lot.
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Sam – I think you fall into an exceptional category for giving and it looks like you have picked some great charities. I love your quote of giving more than you feel you’ve received. That’s how I feel too. To me, charity is your rent for being fortunate enough to live in this country and have the opportunities we have available to us.
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“I still don’t contribute much cash to charity” – you’re a stingy dude Roth.
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This comment cracks me up. Am I stingy? Can you really tell that from the fact that I don’t contribute much money to charity? That’s like saying I’m fat and lazy because I drive one mile to the grocery store. Ah, people are funny in their desire to judge others from limited information.
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I’ve seen some harsh and judgmental comments levied at you before J.D. and am surprised you seem to be so affected by this one. Perhaps there is a grain of truth to it?
I mean you always say there is a psychology to saving and spending, why shouldn’t there be one for giving?
Maybe more than asking this question, you can write an article looking into the psychology of giving. It seems some backgrounds give a lot more (religious) and other simply do not (cash poor ones).
I too have a background of financial insecurity during my childhood that made me hoard money from a young age.
I basically purchased next to nothing, rather difficult when a teenager, and as such have had a VERY difficult time giving money away.
However, when I was younger I kept myself sane living like a pauper assure in the fact that so many were far worse than I. As a result I volunteered a lot when I was younger.
When I was in HS, I volunteered at a soup kitchen. It was on Skid Row, and the area was populated by crack hookers, drug addicts, and a lot of homeless. Basically, it was the perfect place for a soup kitchen.
I did a job any one could do. I set tables, cleared them, and passed trays. The location could only serve about 50 meals a day and many times had left overs. The facility itself often was so full of food, they literally were giving away boxes of yogurt, gallons of milk and loaves of bread.
When I went to college, I volunteered at a cultural center. I could speak Japanese fairly well, typed efficiently and was pretty competent when it came to computers. So I worked as the office secretary as the center did not have the budget for one. I learned a lot of skills, such as working the phones, doing correspondence, and was able to improve my Japanese. The office loved me because it afforded them time to work on grants, organize events, etc.
In the end, I knew I would get a great recommendation and the volunteer experience would look great on applications. Win-Win right?
Well, not really.
The background of the soup kitchen was that they were unable to do a lot of outreach. The soup kitchen was closed for most of the day and not everyone knew it was there as it was open only a few hours a day. My supervisor was a big, burly man who was himself formerly homeless and would’ve been great at outreach. However, he was stuck supervising me, the high school student. Anyone adult could have done his job, but no one was there but him.
The soup kitchen also served tons of turkey, because markets would donate their excess holiday stock and they would use the frozen birds as the year went on. They were always protein poor, because the markets mostly donated perishables with explicit sell-by dates in packaging. And vegetables? Forget about it! If anything was green, yellow or orange on a plate it came from a can. They were literally giving away food to volunteers instead of the homeless because they didn’t have the man power. Yet, they were always seeking monetary donations because they also needed, protein, vegetables to make dinners.
The reality was, they did not have enough volunteers to serve breakfast. They kept on accepting breakfast items with the hope of offering it. It was a job anyone could have done but no one volunteered to do it.
At the cultural center I was doing a job few could do, and probably saved them 10-13 dollars an hour doing it. While, a server probably would’ve made only $4 an hour at best, my services probably would’ve helped more at the kitchen. It’s easy to look at the cash value of ones time and feel that maybe it’s better to volunteer than write a check. But sometimes places really need the money, and some places need your time more than others may need your skills.
I got a lot out of volunteering at the cultural center, but I felt the community got a lot out of me at the soup kitchen.
Isn’t that what volunteering is about?
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Some of us (like me) prefer to give what money can’t buy. Go ahead and put a price tag on the 22 gallons of milk I donated. I otherwise would have had to dump it down a drain, making it worthless. The milk bank charges $4 per ounce for reimbursement. At 22 gallons (128 oz per gallon), I donated $11,264 in human milk. However, it wasn’t “claimable” by the IRS on my taxes, the recipients didn’t know it was donated by me and you can’t go to the local Kroger and buy a gallon of human milk. I can’t even legally sell it. Essentially, it’s priceless.
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For those with a Biblical inclination:
Matthew 6:1
1Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven.
2“Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. 3But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
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So do righteous altruists give out of the kindness of their hearts, or are they doing so with the secret motivation to receive some of those “rewards” promised by God?
Seems kind of hypocritical if you’re only giving out of a desire for untold “riches” in the afterlife, doesn’t it?
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Kevin, you are suggesting that both giving out of kindness and love, and giving for “rewards” from God are mutually exclusive. They are not.
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I just wanted to respond because this seems to be a misconception, at least as to how I was raised and taught. Giving to get something out of it (either admiration of others or a benefit from God) means that one missed the very point of giving. Why would God think of that as giving? (How is that different from giving money to get a burger–you’re just trying to buy a different “product”). I was taught to give because so much was given to me–a wonderful family, food to eat, a safe country in which to live. It’s the pay-it-forward concept. The passage of the Bible quoted was to address a specific practice at the time where the rich announced how much they gave to the synagogue and gave only because they obtained power that way. (Nobody wanted to make those high-givers angry.) But giving solely because you think you can make God give you benefits/treasures in Heaven is just as meaningless and will be treated as such.
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This verse reminds me of my ex and his wife, who only give when they get something in return, including recognition and praise. They’ll even post about their good “deeds” on facebook, and 20 people will then comment about how wonderful and giving they are. They really make me sick. They also claim to be devout Christians. I always thought about sending them this verse, but I never did it.
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@Greg – Are you suggesting that people here are posting their giving “in order to be seen”? Do you think folks here are “trumpeting” their giving? Or are they posting it relatively anonymously on the internet with motives you cannot know?
I don’t know. You’re probably a very nice man Greg. This post just irks me. There’s a time and a place for everything. And the time and place to post a scripture against bragging about almsgiving is not on a thread that specifically asks folks how much they give.
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I find it tricky to balance following those verses and talking about strategies I use so I can inform others. Ultimately, I think the scripture is guiding us to be intrinsically motivated to give rather than motivated by external rewards like praise and recognition.
Only the people who comment know their own motivations, and we can’t tell in a post on the internet anyway.
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Can we at least stipulate that churches aren’t charities? I understand that most churches support charitable causes, but the percentage of their income that goes to those in need in minuscule compared to actual charities.
We earn 70K for a family of 3 and donate 10% to secular charities and about 10 hours of time per week between the two adults.
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I can’t agree about the church thing. Perhaps it’s the church you are going to?
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Meghan,
Be careful making generalities about how much churches take in and give back out. Serving their community and offering programming, learning opportunities, helping those in need are all things that nonprofits you consider “charities” are doing with the funds you donate to them. And most are paying their staff a very reasonable amount. If their finances seem out of whack, maybe that’s not a church for you, but there are many doing tons in the community with very little.
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Do you have data to back up your claim?
And I have to disagree that churches are not charities. According to most general and legal definitions, churches fall under the category of charitable organizations, because they are not-for-profit organizations that exist to serve a perceived common good.
According to thefreedictionary.com “A charity is a group designed to benefit society or a specific group of people. Its purpose may be educational, humanitarian, or religious. A charity goes beyond giving relief to the indigent, extending to the promotion of happiness and the support of many worthy causes.”
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I would propose the opposite. Church can be a powerful charity as it can help hold communities together as well as teaches good morals. There are certainly people looking to belong to something, and plenty of need for moral instruction in society. This alone but in in addition most churches encourage further giving.
Churches are not self supporting(though I suppose an industrious one could be, go go “monk-made-beer”) so I would certainly count them as charity.
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Do you think that charities only help with people’s physical needs? Churches do serve their communities – largely in spiritual, psychological, or emotional capacities – not just the people who show up on Sunday morning. The biggest line item in my church’s budget is for staff – people employed full-or part-time to serve anyone who asks (and many who don’t). I’m sure it’s the same way for many organizations you would consider charities. Take a homeless shelter, for instance – how much of the operating budget goes to the staff?
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That recent NPR post on who gives most covered this issue. It is an interesting question, Utah is on the top of charitable giving but most of that money goes to the Mormon church and as I understand a lot of the Mormon tithing goes to building and building upkeep.
I think that money given to a church that is directed to charitable efforts by the church, i.e. feeding the poor or homeless outreach, etc., certainly should count as charitable giving. But I agree that giving to underwrite the administrative and religious outreach or building churches is not really charitable.
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I agree that giving to one’s church is different that charitable giving. Most churches the donations go to upkeep or for building the church or buildings, which really just serves the church members themselves, not people outside the church. At my FIL’s church they were having a big donation drive, but all that money was planning on new construction (the place is huge already). On the other hand, the church members who were going to Haiti simply had a smaller seperate fund raiser. It seems there was no consideration for any of the money given in tithes to go to that mission.
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I grew up in a rural area and there really weren’t too many ‘public use’ buildings available for community groups to use. My home church had a daycare, hosted blood drives, hosted a bookmobile stop, hosted a boyscout troup, organized afterschool tutoring within the church facility, and also participated in a county-wide initiative to provide temporary housing for homeless families – families occasionally came and stayed at our church. AA groups also met at the church, and for many years the church building was the headquarters of the local foodbank. This is in addition to all of the church-specific groups, and I’m sure that there were other community groups using the building that I didn’t know about. There were some weeknights where you couldn’t even find a spare room to meet in the church building, there were so groups using the building.
Maybe this isn’t the case in all churches, but most of the churches that I’ve belonged to have allowed outside groups to use church space. I think that many non-churchgoers might be surprised to realize how many general community members/groups/even small businesses are using church facilities.
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I’m confused. What charities do you know that don’t also pay for buildings or rent?!
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I’ve always thought that the percentage for tithe should be split (in these discussions). Some of it does go to the needy and the amount varies greatly from church to church. And some essentially constitutes a membership or club fee, from which the tither derives personal benefits (use of the church and its resources). I don’t think there’s a hard and fast percentage breakdown though.
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We have to take into account also that churches don’t pay taxes so I feel their charitable contribution should be higher. Once again I recommend Charity Navigator http://www.charitynavigator.org/ Giving certainly does begin at home but shouldn’t be limited. A rising tide lifts all ships.
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Legally, aren’t most churches charities?
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Can we at least stipulate that “animal welfare groups” aren’t charities? I understand that most churches support charitable causes, but the percentage of their income that goes to “people” in need in minuscule compared to actual charities.
If you don’t think the work of a specific organization (spiritual formation, community building, counseling, moral training, etc) is valuable, don’t give to that group. I’m not seriously saying that animal groups shouldn’t count as charities, but I don’t give to them because I think humans are more important. Animal charities need buildings to do their work. Churches need buildings to do their work. Yes, the members benefit. But the members believe that the church benefits others as well.
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Reading through many of these comments I am truly amazed at how selfish people are and self serving in their rationlization about the inherent selfishness of giving to others. In these times we all need to help each other. Stranger or friend. That being said I do agree with sweat equity in giving. I am not religious in the least. we all need to cut back and see what’s truly needed in our lives to survive: Food and shelter is a good start. We all have too many ‘extras’ these days that we count as necessities. I like my martini at night which I make at home.
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Your comment made me laugh, because I have been reading all these comments thinking how surprisingly generous most people are. Might all depend on the view of human nature one starts with (I tend to expect the worst, so I’m often pleasantly surprised).
ETA: that whole “it’s selfish to give to others” is, I think, primarily a libertarian/objectivist viewpoint…which does indeed seem to be enjoying a larger than usual surge of support (even for America, land of the belief in rugged indivdualism).
Also, time to make a gin and tonic!
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“Can we at least stipulate that “animal welfare groups” aren’t charities?”
I don’t think there’s a general consensus on that. I mentioned them in my post, but was not talking about groups like PETA. I give to the local equivalent of the ASPCA.
If charity is about helping those who can’t help themselves, that can include animals too.
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I was being sarcastic. Most people do think animal groups are charities, as do I. I was just saying that the same logic of churches not being charities applies to animal groups.
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I certainly would not agree, but it depnds on your church, it’s abilities and other things. I beong to a church that builds a habitat house, co sponsors a homeless shelter, co sponsors an aids hospice and many other things.
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My church has fewer than 200 people who attend on Sundays. Yet it runs a shelter for women and children, it has a food pantry, it offers free English classes to immigrants, and runs many other smaller programs (like sending a group of youth to Tennessee over the summer…kids whose families don’t attend the church) and just helping people who come off the street (like people who need help paying their electric bill, or an unemployed vet who ran out of gas and couldn’t get out of town).
I’m on some of the church leadership committees, and I know what our budget is, and how the money is spent. It’s astonishing how much good work they do with the money it brings in (the membership is not made up of many in the top 10%, that’s for sure). There are churches that seem more interested in helping themselves than in helping the community. But that’s certainly not all of them, so please don’t paint churches with such a sweeping generalization.
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We do not give routinely to any one charity or cause, but rather we choose to support our friends when they get involved in fundraising activities. The vast majority of our friends (ourselves included) lead very active lifestyles, so someone is always raising money while training for a marathon, or doing a walk to end MS, etc. We tend give $50-$100 whenever one of our friends is doing something like this – and that usually gets up to around $1K/year or so.
We also donate goods to the local food pantry around the holiday season, and once or twice a year I will go through our closets and donate gently used items to the local thrift store whose proceeds benefit veterans.
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I give about 10.2% of my net, mostly cash, about 20% in time. About half goes to church, the other half is spread among charities that I think are important, like Red Cross, Fistula Foundation, Save the Children, SPCA (local), Food Bank (local), etc.
I used to give all that to the church, but came to the belief that I can serve the world situation better by spreading out giving. I wasn’t raised to give like this, but my parents were always generous to folks in need.
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We mostly give money as that is what is most precious to us.
We tithe to our church (10%) and then have a charitable giving savings account to which we contribute another 1.5% so that we can give as other opportunities come up, like to our local food bank or friends’ fundraisers for health causes.
We also lend through Kiva, but I don’t consider that giving since the money does come back, so that’s in addition to the figures stated above.
I don’t keep track of how much time we give but I’m involved with two ministries through our church – one with a local homeless shelter and one with the church’s financial ministry. My husband also volunteers with the homeless shelter and spends about 10 hrs/month doing production at church.
We have a fairly low income (again – money is more precious) so that’s why I like the percentage-based giving model so we can scale that as our income increases.
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Isn’t Kiva awesome! I have done more than 70 loans with them and I love the idea that we are able to help people who would never get help from the traditional lending community. It’s so nice to be able to help widows, or women raising large families, or extremely small business owners in these different countries. I think that’s such a cool concept.
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I had always given sporadically to charities when people I know were doing fundraisers, and I did a lot of fundraising through high school. The past few years, though, between college and starting a full-time job, I haven’t had as much time to focus on philanthropy.
At my job (which I recently left), I was making about €45,000/year, and I started giving €20/month to the Red Cross, €10/month to Amnesty International, and €22/month to Doctors Without Borders. I also recently gave $25 to my college fund, $100 to a food bank in memory of a deceased friend, and I’ll give $100 to the scholarship fund in his honor later this spring. It’s my goal in the next three years to donate a total €1500 to charity and to make 3 websites for charities (about €2000 worth of work).
I’m trying to embrace the idea of financial karma: by being generous with the universe, I hope the universe is generous with me.
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$5000 to alma mater
$11000 to church
~$1000 to various other places, mostly through mail solicitations
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I donated $25 every month to the charity or cause of my choice. Sometimes the $25 is in goods instead of cash (buying $25 of food for a food drive or $25 worth of school supplies for a school supply drive). Sometimes I will donate cash as well as goods. I usually end up donating approximately $300-350 a year. I realize this is less than 1% of my income before taxes, but probably comes out to about 1% after taxes.
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Ever since finishing college (and getting married), we’ve tried to give sacrificially. We give about 15% of our money to charity (we make about $85K a year combined). 10% of that goes to the church and ministry-related donations, most of them regular monthly line items, and the rest we spread wherever we feel led.
We enjoy having a misc. bucket of funds to donate that is built into our budget, so we can be nimble and responsive to needs among our immediate community, and those larger as well. If those funds haven’t been spent by the end of the year, we’ll make sure they go somewhere in the holiday season.
I also work for a nonprofit, but we don’t actually donate much to that (not because we don’t love it, we do, or I wouldn’t be working there), but because there are so many other important things to give to as well.
We don’t volunteer as much as I’d like, but that’s mostly due to being busy with two small children and working long hours for a nonprofit.
While we donate about 15%, it’s still not to a level I consider overwhelmingly sacrificial. We are able to save another 20% of our income and live on the rest, which means we watch our budget closely, choose our luxuries carefully and forgo many, but we still are able to have a nice little house in a great city. Our goal for the future is to consider how to reconcile how we can give more, while also being financially responsible to save for things like college, retirement, etc.
Side note: the first thing we do when I get a raise (and honestly the most fun), is looking at how to donate that 15%. You should all try it out!
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My spouse and I give a few hundred dollars to several local charities each year: our local food bank, our local NPR station, the larger food bank organization in our area, the local high school music program, and a couple of humane societies in the area.
For the last several years I’ve also volunteered once a week at a nearby animal shelter.
I don’t view the NPR contribution as charity; really I’m just paying for a service that I use.
We choose to give locally and to causes that we really care about – we’re big dog lovers, my husband loved band in HS & college, and the fact that families and households in our area don’t have enough to eat is really just unacceptable to me.
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We’re at about 5-6% of our take home income. Each year as we review our budget we have a line item for charity and we strive to increase it a small amount each year. We have an amount we give regularly to a couple of charities and our church and then we built in a small “discretionary” amount into the line so we have the opportunity to support expected requests such as an Eagle Scout project or items needed by the local food pantry.
We do commit to giving 10% of our tax refund each year to a nonprofit. We usually have a good time “shopping” for our tax refund charity of choice each spring.
My recommendations are to find an organization or cause where you feel a connection. Philanthropy is and should be very personal. Know you can’t support everything and don’t feel guilty when you stick with your choice(s). It’s all about being conscious about where you expend your time and money.
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My family gives about $12,000 per year to charity. I believe that giving money to people who need it (and there is always someone worse off than you) is a habit that gives you a mentality of generosity and abundance and that you will reap rewards from that. I think that most people (yes, even those who earn less than $92k) should aim for at least 10% and then more if they can afford to.
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I give an item to the food bank every week when I go grocery shopping. I also spend maybe $50 a year giving to friends and coworkers who are fundraising for various organizations or causes. Money is tight, so it’s easier for me to give of my time at the moment. This past year, I helped out at a youth centre for about 12 hours a month doing meal prep and spending time with the youth. I was also involved in helping to plan some alternative Pride events this summer, and in the past 2 or 3 years I have been really active in different grassroots groups working towards various goals, although there isn’t anything right now that’s really calling to me.
Once I’m a bit more financially stable, I’d like to start giving more cash. In the past, my partner and I budgeted $50 a month to charitable giving, and we would take turns every month deciding where the money would go.
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Oh and I also regularly donate blood (I’m actually donating today!) I’m O negative so I make it a habit to donate every 8-10 weeks.
Donating blood is so easy and you get free cheez its. Folks, if you’re eligible and aren’t deathly afraid of needles, donate blood! Free cheez its!!
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I’m O- too and they always pump me up about it! “Your blood is going to babies…”
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We do a blood drive at our office two or three times a year, and I always participate. Not only do I get a few minutes away from my desk, I also get a free can of Sprite. Woo hoo!
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I have to say, this is the one place I draw the line. I will give money, I will give time and labor, I will give clothing, furniture, housewares, or books, but I am keeping my blood. I donated blood once, a just in case self-donation in preparation for a surgery. I got sick TWICE in the month afterwards and we had to postpone the surgery – a cold and a flu, and I NEVER get sick. No really, I NEVER get sick – like for years at a time. I think that donation lowered my resistance just enough that I managed to catch something I usually wouldn’t be susceptible to. Fortunately, my husband and oldest son don’t agree with me and they donate gallons of the stuff on behalf of our family, so I feel like I’m covered on that score.
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When my husband and I were making less than 30k combined, we were giving 10% (after taxes) to the youth ministry of the church we attended. We also volunteered with that group on a weekly basis, so we gave our time, but we saw the financial need during a time when the church as a whole was struggling. That is not to say that we were not struggling but it was huge for us in our road to learning how to budget. We were spending too much money on housing and other things. Currently, my husband is in medical school and although I am working full time I am also going to school full time so we do not give monetarily. In some ways, I see my job as part of my giving as I work for a non-profit that aids victims of sexual and domestic violence…and I make very little. I have been spending time going through our possessions – much of which was acquired through my grandparents and some serendipitous timing of life events – and donating quite a bit to charity. As we have been able to assess our aesthetic priorities we both agree that less is more and have easily been able to pare down. I do not think that any certain income range should be subject to any specific percentage that they are pressured to give. Giving is such a personal act and – while I believe it is a reflection of an individual’s journey in their relationship to other people – it is his/her choice on how much and when. I look forward to being able to give financially again and am a fan of Micro Loans that help folks all over the world (including in the US) get their business off the ground.
And now I’ve given you my .02 cents. (har har)
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I give 10% cash to support veterens groups, the arts, education, and my church. I also donate my time to these charities.
I donate product from my business (baked goods) for many local and national charities(like red cross).
I donate blood a couple of times a year, donate any thing we aren’t using to Goodwill.
Donate my time to anyone I personally know who is in crisis…making dinners, doing laundry, errands, etc.
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I feel very good about the $0 I give to charity.
Talk about corrupt! The sliver of cash that actually goes to the cause minus operating costs, event rentals etc etc is next to nothing. Not that anyones intentions are at fault it’s just in my eyes its a scam with nice makeup painted on.
Now, I do and will continue to donate my time, food and used stuff but NEVER a cent.
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Whilst true for some, this is simply not true for all charities. The website GiveWell (givewell.org) recommends a small number of charities with the top-rated based on efficiency. It tells you exactly how they spend your money.
For example, their top-rated charity, Against Malaria, spend 100% of donations on mosquito nets, because their small overhead costs are covered by private sponsors.
Most charities’ websites give you the breakdown of where each donated pound/dollar goes.
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(oops, wasn’t supposed to be a reply)
I think that whilst you are in debt, focus on paying that off (although some say to still donate because it can make you FEEL richer than you are!). When you are debt free, however, I agree with Peter Singer’s website “The Life You Can Save” (http://www.thelifeyoucansave.com/idea), where lower income people donate 1%, and over £105000 dollars the percentage increases proportionately.
I have written a couple of posts about giving to charity, from a UK perspective. The first was “How Much Should You Give to Charity”, and the other was about “Charitable Giving On a Budget”.
1. http://the-frugal-graduate.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/how-much-should-you-give-to-charity.html
2. http://the-frugal-graduate.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/charitable-giving-on-budget.html
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Meh, I’m stating the obvious here but charities need office space and to pay their staff like any other organization. There are very few companies out there who’ll donate office space/office supplies/etc and very few competent, smart people who will or can work for peanuts. What that percentage or amount should be is I guess an open question, but people who whine that 100% of donations don’t go to the cause are just looking for excuses in my opinion.
I give time as well as money (direct and through charities) too, but I’d be delusional to suggest that the time I give isn’t as much for my benefit (for a number of reasons) as the cause’s.
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Thank you for this support of NPOs. I’ve been reading the comments with a sinking heart. I run a small non-profit that has been a benefit to members of the community for more than 40 years.
Although I am certainly not in it for the money and neither is my staff we most certainly could not do it without lights, computers (most here are 6 years old) and phones. I struggle every year with the perception that we pay too much of our income to “frippery” such as salaries, events and overhead. We chose to not do the fund raising events if we cannot find sponsors for all related costs and some donors look down on us for that. As a result we raise struggle to raise enough sometimes, most of my staff would qualify for public assistance and I myself am the sole earner in my family right now and we struggle. It makes me sad that folks latch on to the very few NPOs that do seem to have issues and then apply that across the board. It indeed seems to become an excuse or some form of justification, dare I say pride, for not being “taken in” by us all.
Giving is a personal choice, and I donate back to the organization I work for, but please do not perpetuate the myth that all NPOs are shoddy or questionable businesses.
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I understand your feelings, but you can check out very local charities and be assured your money is being put to good use.
I give a nice check every month to a no kill animal shelter here in my small town. I can see them struggling every time I drive by.
There is no excuse for claiming that all charities are scams.
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Zero, but I pay an awful lot in taxes.
They say the “poor” give a higher percentage of their income to charity than the “rich.” That’s pretty easy to do when you belong to the 50% of US taxpayers who literally owe no net federal income tax whatsoever.
If you keep 100% of your meagre income, and give 10% to your church (while using thousands of dollars’ worth of roads, schools, food banks, and hospitals you pay nothing for), does that make you more virtuous than the person who gives nothing to charity, but forfeits 40% of his income in various taxes to fund the myriad “free” services the pious pauper avails themselves of?
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Kevin…why do you look at giving as “pious” activity? And this is not a statement in the form of a question, I am genuinely curious.
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I guess because I view giving away money as fundamentally irrational, particularly for a website devoted to increasing peoples’ wealth. The main motivation I see for giving is driven by religion, and even that is largely rooted in hypocrisy.
While I’m sure many people do indeed give because they feel it is the right thing to do, how many more do so because of a Karmic promise that the universe will return their generosity to them in multiple? Or that the invisible man is watching them and will punish them if they don’t give, or reward them if they do? It’s suggested all through the Bible, even in a passage quoted further up this very post – a reference that the Heavenly Father will “reward” the giver. Are these people giving out of the kindness of their hearts, or because of this implied bargain that these post-mortem “rewards” will be even better than the Earthly riches they’re giving away?
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Kevin,
I’m glad you’re here and responding to comments, because your viewpoint is interesting to hear. I think you’re absolutely right that much giving is rooted in selfish reasons. I know that personally, when I donate money, I feel like a better person after doing so – so am I donating because I genuinely want to help others and it’s the right thing to do, or am I donating to get that warm, fuzzy “I’m so generous and awesome feeling?” I don’t even know, to be honest.
But ultimately, the motivations for giving are much less important than the fact that money was donated that will go to helping other people. Sure, some (many?) donors may be motivated by hypocritical or selfish reasons, but as long as it results in greater good, what’s the harm?
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Religion isn’t the only reason people give to charity. Lots of atheists are charitable and lots of people who are religions or kinda religious give not out of fear but a genuine desire to help people.
I’m not religious although I don’t consider myself an atheist. But I think it’s important to help people because I think it’s the right thing to do.
I was raised in a religious home and about the only thing that stuck was the idea of loving and respecting everyone because everyone is your neighbor (not really what my Sunday School teachers were going for) and helping the poor, sick, downtrodden , and oppressed. Because it’s the right thing to do and makes the world a better place.
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Kevin…while I can see your point of view it seems a little pessimistic. People give for a variety of reasons. I like to look at it as people are empathetic beings and they are choosing to help others who aren’t as fortunate. In fact, I think charities in general (yes, there are always horror stories)do so much more with the little they have than what the government does with the taxes it collects (ex: Hurricane Katrina). And while time and energy is a good donation, there are still things that can only be had with cash.
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We pay high taxes too, but I certainly don’t begrudge the poor folks who make so little money (or are retired and receiving SS) that they do not have to pay federal income taxes. Of course, they DO pay other taxes, including gas taxes for the roads, property taxes, sales taxes, state and local taxes and they pay payroll taxes.
The NPR segment indicated that the poorer tend to give at a higher rate to charity because (1) they are more religious and attend church so that charitable giving is going to the church and (2) because they know what its like to need services.
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I know of few people who make a meager salary who would prefer their meager salary over a large salary. You say this like people who have meager salaries don’t want more money or are lazy for not working harder, as opposed to the reality that often these are people who work very hard but are only paid minimum wage/ A person’s value is not based on their paycheck.
In terms of the sacrifice of their giving, I think for a person to be able to keep 100% of your income, that means your salary must be less than $14,000 (no kids), i.e., basically minimum wage. If a person making only $1100 a month can contribute $100 to helping others, that is impressive, to say the least. Surviving on so little leaves little room for anything so this means he may forgo entertainment altogether and be eating a lot more ramen noodles for the month.
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Hi Kevin,
If you’re interested in giving to charity without that money going to people who don’t pay federal income tax, try things like animal shelters, programs that focus on children, or international aid programs. And I recommend using something like Charity Navigator to find good charities. There are many organizations out there who are scams, but there are also good ones who, at least imo, help people and animals who really need it.
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I don’t give more than 1% of my net income to charity because I don’t know how much I’m going to need later in my life (for retirement, healthcare, family, etc.). I’d rather save now and give to charity at my death. I don’t have a problem with people who give more, but if you add up 10% over 30 years, that’s 3 full years of income. That could make a very big financial difference. I guess part of it is whether you view “charity” as an on-going goal, a very long-term goal, or perhaps not a goal at all. Since you can’t un-give money, for me it makes sense to wait until the end.
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Kevin: I am going to assume you are married.
If you are married, would you ONLY give your wife a gift because you want to get laid? Or would you give her a gift because you LOVE her? If you’re a normal functional human being, I would hope the answer is out of Love…not “just cause you wanna get laid”.
So it is with Christians and God. We give money to the poor because we love God. We know He is happy and pleased when we are helping others, so we try to do what makes Him happy, out of sheer love for Him. Sure, rewards later are icing on the cake, but it’s not even close to the main reason.
Just like your wife. You do things out of Love for her. Getting laid is hopefully just icing on the cake for you, and not your main motivation for doing things for her.
I hope this little comparison clarifies things for you.
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I was never in “need” as a child, my family always scraped by and thankfully my parents didn’t believe much in going into debt, so we didn’t usually have the best but hardly ever went “without”. Both my parents were liberal with their time when it came to many needy organizations including the local PBA, the PTA, local basketball and baseball teams as well as other random groups. We never donated much in money.
Now that im older I realize that unfortunately there isn’t always the availability of time to donate. Thus I at this point prefer to provide financial support versus my presence. I have a hard and fast rule that I believe the biggest difference you make is when you help out the local community.
I donate money weekly (read:tithe) to my church that goes to caring for the local needy as well as keeping the church running (which serves a great societal need IMHO).
I also donate needed foods to local food shelters when boxes are put out, and even more during the holidays and winter months.
When events come up I also escort Toys For Tots as well as do events at the local veterans organizations.
As I slowly move out of debt and have more time available I would like to allocate more time towards doing good in the local area.
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We give at least 10% of our income (so giving ranges from about $2,000-$3,000) each year and sometimes the Lord allows us to give more than that. We split our giving between our church and giving directly to needy individuals that we know personally. For instance we are able to give $50 each month to someone who needs help with bills for dialysis.
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I can’t help but think of this David Sedaris story whenever people inquire about charitable giving:
http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/dce/soc380/temp/four/holidayOnIce.htm
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That is Hilarious!
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Thanks for that! I just love Dave Sedaris, and the holidays would never be the same without him
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I don’t find a place for charitable giving while we are in debt. Period. I give 15-25 bucks a year to my undergrad alma mater. I don’t have time to give. I barely see my kids, and if I have extra time, it goes to them. We donate all their gently used items and any other household items that we no longer need.
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I started to write a comment, but pushed a wrong button and it disappeared. I believe a person’s first and foremost responsibility is to oneself (and their family). Make sure YOU have enough, and enough for emergency/retirement, and only then see how you can help others. Otherwise, you are not helping anyone, really.
I contribute to a small animal charity whose key people I know personally. Other than that, I only help personally – friends, or people I know. Family ties, people from our community, things like that – not some abstract “charity”. It will be a cold day in hell before I give a dime to church.
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I’m not quite that hardcore, but that’s my general view on things, also. We donated around 1000k/year back when our gross income was 50-60K, but we were also paying a lot of ‘starting out’ debt (student loan, car, mortgage) and we were trying to max the 401k.
After we had cleared all debt except mortgage, maxed out 401K, and gross income had increased to about 90K…for that few years, we gave about 3K per year (still only about 3%). Reason was that by that point we realized we were going to have to support my mother. I’d consider that charity, given the circumstances. Others might not.
We were soon back in debt with a second mortage, a home equity loan, and a new car loan. For the 3 years it took to clear THAT shit load of debt, I donated only approx 500$/year to NPR and the local food bank.
Now, finally, we have no debt except the two mortgages and our gross income has increased to 115K. However, support for my Mom totals 10-12K/year, so I’m not inclined to support external charities at the moment. At this point, I am far more concerned about trying to repair the lost years of retirement donation and keep us stable, so that we don’t become a charity case for somebody else.
That said, we have GREAT ambition to donate to all kinds of charitable causes, assuming we are eventually in a stable financial place, and we are definitely getting closer to that. I definitely aspire to Dave Ramseys 5th step (and I say that as an atheist!)
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Aside from giving to my church, I also give to KIVA and Heifer–both because they are charities that have a philosophy of rather than giving a fish, they help teach a person TO fish. KIVA is a micro-loan charity that loans small amounts of money to people to help them expand their business and you choose which person to support. Heifer provides animal and teaches one how to care for their animals and they pay back the value through the selling the product from the animal (i.e., milk or eggs, etc) and the person ALSO passes on the gift.
Most of my other charitable giving in cash goes to developing countries because IMO we are so blessed and have so many benefits based on the infrastructure of our country and the amazing resources that it has. However, there are many in developing worlds who can’t simply move to another country with better resources–they are stuck there. And not all of our world’s resources are equally divided. So I feel a responsibility to help to counter that situation. I think it was Warren Buffett that first discussed how so many of us won the lottery of the womb based solely upon the citizenship of our parents.
I also give in time. I volunteer time to my church by being a Sunday school teacher. I have volunteered my time to mentor two children at an economically disadvantaged school, and I volunteer a lot to my children’s school. Volunteering my time is a different type of service that helps ME grow as a person. I expose myself to new ideas and different experiences that I wouldn’t have known unless I got involved.
I don’t know my percentages as to giving–it’s probably $400 a month and in terms of time, it’s probably 100 hours a year
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Your giving is very similar to mine. Kiva and Heifer are my very favorite causes. I actually do my Heifer giving through United Way, which is nice because it’s set up as payroll deduction and also helps my employer look good (we are a large bank and are #1 in employee giving nationwide). I reckoned it up and figured that I am giving a COW a year. It may not be a literal cow – it is likely other small animals, but I have done this for about 10 years now and I love thinking of all the generations of baby animals that are out there in the world now as a result of my yearly donations. That’s my rent for being on this earth, I think.
I am also a busy Scout leader and help with my church youth group – my youngest is 14, so it gives me a chance to be involved in his life. I’ve discovered that I also have a bit of a talent for fundraising, so I like to challenge myself to see how much money I can raise for the charities I favor.
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Just two points on this:
1. If the point of charitable giving is it do good, then it behoves us to find the charity that does the most good and give them all of our charitable giving. Sure, giving away different categories of items to the charities that needs them makes sense, but as for money … choose the one that does the most good. Maybe that’s a registered charity. Maybe that’s being a subway hero. Or, just maybe, it’s giving money directly to those in need.
2. Meghan in comment 7 hits the nail on the head. Do good, don’t pretend to do good.
Of course, if the people is to feel good … then ignore everything I’ve said.
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I would like to know what people spend on charitable giving AND how they define charitable giving.
There’s obviously a wide range of options for you to send your money too, or volunteer your time to. There’s obviously a difference (in my mind anyway) between tithing to a church, giving directly to a charity, giving directly to people in need, giving to organizations that are more environmental/political/governance and law related, and supporting your friend’s pet projects. Does it all really fall under the charity umbrella? Does anybody else feel this nit-picky this morning?
For myself I give $12/week to my company’s charitable giving fund. It’s a paltry amount, but I used to pad that significantly by tithing and volunteering and donating money to other places, back when I lived in a less remote location than I do now. I know giving is important, but I”ll be the first to admit it’s NOT been a priority in my life with my current work/life situation.
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Agreed. My 25 bucks a year to my alma mater is about me, pure and simple. I like being part of the special club.
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Yes, I think this is a good point if you look at giving from a results-on-their-end point of view.
For me though giving is more about how it changes my attitude toward money, and I think to that purpose it doesn’t really matter who the recipient is. For example, when my church teaches on giving, our pastor emphasizes that if the listeners shouldn’t give to the church if they don’t believe in its mission and efficacy but should give elsewhere instead so that they can experience that personal transformation (and follow God’s teachings).
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I think it is a very personal thing based on what you can afford and where you want your money to go. I have worked with Christian Children’s Fund for many years sponsoring children. A maximum of 20% goes to their overhead and the rest to the kids. And getting regular updates on their individual progress including pictures and reports is awesome. Also contribute when I can to SmileTrain. For $250 you can provide an operation for a child with cleft palate changing their life forever. And of course when the neighborhood kids come by they usually sell me magazines for school or cookies or whatever. Having been a sales guy all my life I have a hard time saying no to a good pitch!
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I just graduated from college and although I’m making a living, I suppose you could call me “underemployed.” Giving is really important to me, though.
One of the GRS staff writers – April, I think? – wrote about https://www.charitysub.org/, where you pick one of three causes every month to donate $5, and I think that’s a fantastic idea because it’s a very small amount of money and yet, when magnified across almost 400 people, it becomes a significant donation to these charities. I also have donated to causes I care about. My overall percentage of giving is probably pretty low – I don’t think I’ve given more than $100-200 this year – so I probably need to work on upping that. (I also donate blood whenever possible and volunteer my time.)
I think that people who say that they don’t donate to charities because they pay so much in taxes are, of course, totally within their rights – but it’s a cop-out. Everyone pays taxes, US taxes are among the lowest relative to other countries, and most readers of GRS are probably blessed relative to many other people. I strongly believe that an individual should share his or her blessings. Again, I understand and respect why others might disagree, but I strongly believe that individuals should be charitable regardless of how much they’re paying in taxes.
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Laura, but what about the fact that many of the services provided by those taxes were traditionally provided by churches and charities in the past?
A portion of my taxes goes to running a local homeless shelter – a service that used to be entirely the purview of the church. Can’t at least that portion of my taxes be considered “charitable?” And what about the portion that goes toward educating youth (schools)? Healing the sick (my province collects $1,200/year from our household as a “Health Premium”) – isn’t that “charitable?”
Regarding taxes, I think everyone should have at least a little “skin in the game,” no matter how poor they are. When you pay nothing for something, you value it less. You’re more prone to abusing it or taking it for granted. But if it’s costing you something – even a token amount – I believe you’re more appreciative of it. I don’t care how poor you are, you can afford 1%.
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A few thoughts:
1) I’m not sure how the tax system works where you live, but it sounds like many of the things that you’re counting as “charitable” are also resources that you could and perhaps do use, like schools and the health premium. That alone wouldn’t disqualify a donation from being charitable, but it does imply that you will benefit from your contribution as well.
2) It’s likely that a very small percentage of your taxes go to these “charitable” causes, meaning that if we’re talking about donations as % of income in this post, your % would be very small. Mine is too, so I’m not judging, but I am pointing out that there may be room for more giving.
3) Your contributions are involuntary, so is that really “charitable”? I’d argue that part of the joy of giving to charity is picking the cause, seeing the effect your money has and knowing it was worth it to sacrifice that money or time for this cause.
I agree completely that everyone should pay some taxes, and I believe in most countries in the world, everyone does – if a country has a sales tax or anything like that, then everyone will, in fact, have some skin in the game.
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To the extent services like housing the homeless were ever the purview of churches in the US (it’s more complicated in other countries and farther back in time, because there are state churches in other countries), they did them very badly, denying many people services for being “undeserving”.
But actually we’ve always had these state services, nearly as long as we’ve had states, and in older countries (like the UK and other Protestant parts of Europe), charity to the poor was mostly a government project.
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At the insistence of my wife when we got married 11 years ago, we have been giving at least 10% of our gross income for a wide variety of charities–about 25% goes to our chuch, and the remainder tends to go to charities that focus on poverty issues.
I can’t say that there is any magic to 10%, but we have found great value in setting a particular percentage: we are far more intentional with our giving than we were before. I also find that giving 10% of our income has helped our attitude toward money. It really doesn’t feel like a sacrifice, we get great joy in helping orgnizations that we admire (and research first!), and it helps us feel gratitude for the financial resources we have.
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I agree that traditional church-based tithes of 10% are a good guidelines, even for nonreligious people such as me. It’s a good number to aim for, and it’s definitely the minimum of what I’d eventually like to be donating.
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I volunteer once a week driving a van for a mobile soup kitchen, and donate 7-8% of my annual income. According to the breakdown above, it should be 10%; I’ll reevaluate!
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It’s pretty simple for me, I give 10% of my income to my church, 5% in income and donations to various charities, and I try to donate about 5% of my monthly time. I’m in the top 10%. I’m sure as soon as I’m completely out of debt, I will be giving 25% regardless of my US rank.
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I am curious – people that donate 10+ % of their income to charities/church – how much are they saving for their own retirement?
Say, 15% taxes (that’s really low), + 10% to charity – quarter of income is gone, and pretty low income (to have 15% tax rate).
My income is higher – as are my taxes – but if I give away 10% of my income, I shall end up as a charity case myself when I am no longer able to work.
for some people charity is tax-deductible – well, then – that’s just causing taxpayers to pick up your charity check, ain’t it?
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Yes, I wonder this too. Likewise, I’m unclear whether the guidelines described relate to gross income or net income (in our case, those are vastly different numbers).
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I can’t speak for everyone out there. My family, however, gives roughly 10 percent to charity and still usually manages to save 20 to 25 percent of our gross income. This isn’t terribly difficult to do if you live frugally and make good financial decisions.
I’m not sure exactly what percentage we pay in taxes. Our federal level usually falls just under 10 percent. On top of that we have payroll taxes, about a 3 percent state income tax, a 5 percent state sales tax, and some local real estate/car registration taxes.
I would agree that people in a financial train wreck should not be giving to charity. But I generally find in these cases that charitable giving is the least of the problem.
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Frankly, I think that, while everybody’s situation is different, living on ~52% of your income (as you described: 10% charity + 20% savings +18% taxes)is quite challenging for vast majority of population, even if they do make good financial decisions.
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Yes, 52% would be challenging for a lot of people. That is impressive. That’s one of the reasons I wondered what the guidelines referred to. Donating 10% of our net pay would be alot different than gross pay. Our gross (this year, first time, woohoo!) is 115K, but we only actually get 75K of that in hand after deductions/retirement/taxes. From that 75K, we then put about 5K additional into liquid savings, and spend 10K supporting mom. So that leaves us with 60K for bills and discretionary cash related to our own household (which is….wha la! 52% LOL).
Aiming for 10% of 60K seems a lot more doable to me than aiming for 10% of 115K (which would essentially cut our take home pay to below 50K).
I’m certainly not saying we couldn’t live ok on 50K, obviously, but we are in a very very cheap city, with very very low mortgage rates. And if I were to scrimp that much, quite honestly, I’d rather put the extra into retirement with the hope of donating the estate to charity upon my death.
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if you shop at the the Goodwill/Salvation Army thrift store does it count as giving to charity ? even though you are getting something in return ?
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Nope. Perhaps if it makes you feel a bit better, you can add $1 per item of clothes. It’s not that it is a bad thing to do, it’s just that the $$ doesn’t add up to much.
For me, the reason I shop there is so that I can save money on clothes so that I can spend it on things that really matter – like donating money to charities.
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We are at over $400 per month sponsoring two international children, a small monthly donation to a Kenyan maternity home and the rest going to our church.
Of course, during the year we also contribute to support various other causes (Diabetes, MS, Autism, crisis pregnancy, Salvation Army, disaster relief, etc.)
Non-monetary donations include weekly volunteering of 2+ hours each for our church’s youth group and occasional work in the Sunday nursery. We give food bank donations a couple of times a year. Rather than hold yard sales, we find families that truly need (i.e. recently homeless) the items we are passing on. We take meals/flowers to sick friends and neighbors and help elderly get firewood for the winter.
We are a one-income family with small children. We have paid off all of our debt (except the house), and have a 6 month emergency savings. This was not easy and took much diligence. We make giving a priority in our finances.
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Roth, it’s unfortunate to hear that people consistently “urge” you to contribute to charity. Everyone is entitled to do what they want with their money (aside of course from taxes), and you shouldn’t have to make “excuses.” And charity can mean many things – you started this blog for free and have helped thousands of people – isn’t that charity? Further, the greatest “charity” anyone can give another is for each person to be their best and inspire others to be happy, healthy, and kind – this will solve the world’s problems, not merely redistributing income. I certainly think tithing is a wonderful principle, but no one should feel the slightest bit obligated to donate their money if they don’t feel it’s right for their life and situation. Even if you do decide to start donating, you can be sure someone will have an issue with where you decide to donate!
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10% of gross for tithing
1.5% of gross to charitable causes
DH and I each donate about two hours a week in voluntary service. I’m on several boards of non-profits.
He gives blood every three months. He donates his plumbing services to those who can’t afford to pay him.
We also give to food drives, donate items to charity shops, give produce from the garden to neighbors.
There are innumerable ways to give.
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At this time I think it is most important to give to those in need at home and around the world. Most Americans don’t travel much and have little sense of how good we have it. I give both here and abroad both to charities and to individuals I know. I give at least 33% of my working income away. For the past 10-20 years I have given to Habitat for Humanity, The Red Cross, and Drs. Without Borders. Those are my main charities. There is a great site called Charity Navigator http://www.charitynavigator.org/ which looks into many aspects of most charities to see how efficient they are. I highly recommend it. I send a monthly check to an old friend who is a single mom with a disabled child. I’ve volunteered at Homeless Shelters. I don’t buy new clothes and cut my own hair. I also contribute to KIVA.org which is a micro lending worldwide institution that I also recommend. They give small loans (minimum you can loan is 25 dollars – right now you can get a $25 loan for free) to people both here and abroad for their businesses which range from opening a restaurant to buying a cow. Larger banks don’t loan in these amounts if at all. This is truly helping people help themselves. These are no interest (for you) loans that I have always been paid backj and reloan. Another way I give is through my cash rewards on my credit cards. Instead of cashing it in for me I give it to the Red Cross. I am not religious but I do admire the folks at Habitat for Humanity. All the best to everyone.
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My sister asked me what I would do if I had like a billion dollars and I said I would buy the amazonian rain forest and put an electrified 50 foot fence around it to prevent logging. And she said, so you wouldn’t buy me a house? And I said, only if you worked as an armed ranger in the forest for 1-2 months out of the year and she got very offended, talking about bot flies, shiggellosis, and army ants and such. What do you think, should I buy my sister a house, no strings attached?
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I wonder how many endangered animals you’d end up killing with your 50 ft. electrified fence. :/
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I agree with one commenter above, why are people saying you “should” give in a particular way? For example, my work involves being of service to others and so in my free time I don’t volunteer. I figure when I retire I will do that. You are giving with this blog and the work you are doing with your new found Spanish skills. To me, how and to whom we give, be it our time, energy, or money, comes from our heart and what is important to us. So I don’t set any given percentages. Instead when I give money I give to one of three organizations that do work I think is important, or I give to some random organization when they ask, or I do extra work for some one. And so on. In other words I listen to that small voice at any given movement and follow it. It seems to me that your path of giving is to give of yourself rather than your money. So follow that and don’t worry about percentages.
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My wife and I support a child in Africa through a monthly donation. We give to one of the schools I attended. We give to various medical research organizations and we give to our church. All told, our giving probably equals 11-12% of our gross income.
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I have 2 sponsor children through world vision that I spend $70/month supporting. That’s all of my regular charity giving, so I guess $840 annually. It’s not very much…only 0.01% of my income
I should do more.
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Your income is $8.4 million/year?
I take it you’re not a mathematician?
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840 is 0.01% of 84,000… I take it you’re not a mathematician?
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Kevin is right.
.01% (or .0001) of 8.4 million is 840. On the other hand, 1% (or .01) of 84,000 is 840.
I think CB probably meant 1%. Either way, Kevin wins.
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Whoops. You’re right. I was doing what likely CB was doing. Just dividing amount by total and forgetting that doesn’t create a percent. Oops. Now I feel silly.
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My husband and I don’t give much to charity and we have a combined income of about 250k. We both believe that we need to help ourselves before we help others, which means paying off our mortgage early, saving for retirement, and emergency funds, as well as slowly building up our farm to help us become more self-sufficient.
Our plan is to purchase additional land (we currently own 20 acres) over time and leave all our assets and property to a land trust to prevent further development in our very rural area. We see no reason to give while we’re alive or to give to human-focused causes when the environment and animals mean more to us.
Charities we do support on a regular (but small) basis: Surfrider and local pet shelters. We also purchased a couple annual museum memberships even though we’ll never get our money’s worth out of them, just because we like the arts. But we will absolutely never give our money to the Boy Scouts because of their anti-gay policy, and I tell that to every troop that asks me for a donation.
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We’re putting our financial house in order and getting out of debt. I make a few charitable contributions but nothing extraordinary. I can’t justify it until we’re out of credit card debt, which will be soon! We’ll reassess then. I might aim for about 5% of net.
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Wow, I feel cheap and will have to up my giving next year. My husband and I are in the top 10% of income, and give about 2% to charity (primarily NPR, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and animal shelters), although I spend two hours a week teaching an ESL class and we both volunteer at the local animal shelter.
I base my charities on two principals:
1. Animals have been forced to make huge sacrifices for people (medical research, loss of habitat, etc) and don’t deserve the way we treat them. The fact that we euthanize millions of cats and dogs each year is horrific. Thus, I donate most of my money to animal shelters and organizations that support animals.
2. Large (national or international) charities must get a good rating on Charity Navigator or equivalent.
3. When the choice is either buying something myself and giving it to charity or donating cash, I donate the cash.
Why do I give? I’m not religious and don’t give because I think God will reward me in the afterlife (as others have noted, I don’t really consider this charitable giving). I give because my success is due not just to my hard work but also to a myriad of things out of my control – I was born in the US, I was born healthy and continue to be so, and I’ve never had a true catastrophe in my life. I give back in thanks to how lucky I’ve been.
JD, I think it’s interesting that you grew up in a family in need and still don’t really donate. I always assumed that people who grew up in need would be the first ones to donate, since they have experienced the benefits of charity first-hand.
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Cortney though I agree with all three of your comments and your description of yourself as a non-religious person which I am also. I do feel your #1 choice of giving to animals is ill placed. I agree that they have no choice and I’m certainly against any cruelty but children and human beings come first to me. Perhaps my view is tainted because I know too many people personally who treat human beings badly and than sigh over their cats and dogs as if that makes up for treatment of humans. Recently I was in London with a good friend, whom I respect, and we were passing a homeless person on the street with a dog and she wanted to give some money to the man for his dog. I’m sorry I don’t understand that. Perhaps a charity that spads and nueters cats and dogs would fit the bill better for me.
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My parents have always been strong role models in this area…10% pretax of their income. I’m still figuring it out.
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I haven’t given much to charity. Thanks for reminding that I’m blessed and I should give more. Also, I like the thought of giving to “causes,” not just charities.
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