I have two quibbles with their numbers. First, if WalMart gives 1% of revenues, and they have $400 billion in revenues, they give $4 billion to charity. They say $13 billion is given to charity by corporations. Note that U.S. GDP is $14 trillion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_the_United_States), so WalMart takes in under 3% of that. It seems off that 30% of all charitable giving by corporations is high for one organization.
Also, it says that public charities "collect a total of " more than $1.4 trillion. But we only give $300 billion to charity. Where does the other $1.1 trillion come from?
If giving to charity includes supporting the local church to promote prop 8 like laws, then I'm not impressed. And given that religious donation make up for 35% of all, it is actually kind of scary.
Countries like France are much less religious so it makes sense that donation there (to religious institutions and in general) are lower, plus, if you take out the few US billionaires there, I wonder if the French actually give less than the Americans. Also note that French and Italians and most European countries pay much more taxes than the Americans do, and donation are not as tax deductible in Europe as in the US. You can also consider taxes to be some kind of charity, in France, minimum wage is huge and people who are unemployed get almost minimum wage like compensation + health care. So you can consider that in Europe, the state takes care of charity while in the US, it is taken care of by the people (with little success for health care).
A donation to Catholic Charities would count as a religious donation although 0% if it will go to the Church's political activities.
A great deal of the aid to the needy in the US is provided by religious-affiliated charities. Heck, even the Salvation Army is a religious charity.
But I think you're right that the structure of a country like France allows it to run on less charitable giving. I would imagine that the welfare state eliminates the need for a lot of food kitchens and shelters, for instance.
American numbers are also inflated by a large number of organizations operating as 501c3s and collecting contributions that would not be considered "Charities" by most people. For instance, the second largest 'purpose' grouping for 501c3s is "education".[1] Is Harvard University really a 'charity?'
Notice that the largest purpose grouping (by revenue) is health care. I know that Advocate Healthcare -- one of the largest hospital chains in Chicago -- is a 501c3 which has been attacked by health reform advocates for being very stingy with charity care and engaging in aggressive billing practices.
The "healthcare" segment is over 52% of the 501c3 sector by revenue. Some of that may be charity clinics, but I imagine the vast majority of it is institutions like Advocate. If you combine the healtchare and education segments, they account for over 71% of the entire sector.
Interesting that this broke out the religious and secular giving. I've always heard the statistic that religious people giving more, but I always wondered if most of that was in tithes. Apparently it's not.
I've always heard the statistic that religious people giving more
The statistic they showed was religious people being more likely to give at all: this doesn't say anything about how much they give, or the distribution of giving.
It's dangerous to extrapolate too much from limited data.
My church feeds the homeless in Toronto, helps run a rehab clinic in Russia, and sends food and medical supplies to Haiti. Yes we do spend money on keeping on the lights and teaching our congregation about lessons from the Bible, but I've never even heard of the Pastor ever supporting a particular bill or politician. Maybe its because I'm Canadian.
Most churches take care of homeless and the helpless and help members of their congregation (in whatever situation, including bereavement).
In the USA, a lot of the top tier universities were started by churches. Surely this isn’t a bad thing? AFAIK, almost 30% of hospitals in the USA are owned by the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church (which receives most of its money from abroad) basically built the education and healthcare system of Lesotho (as an example).
Saying that they aren’t charities just because you have an irrational hatred towards churches isn’t a reason. If you want an echo chamber for religion bashing, you should maybe try www.reddit.com/r/atheism.
[+] [-] zck|16 years ago|reply
Also, it says that public charities "collect a total of " more than $1.4 trillion. But we only give $300 billion to charity. Where does the other $1.1 trillion come from?
[+] [-] freetard|16 years ago|reply
Countries like France are much less religious so it makes sense that donation there (to religious institutions and in general) are lower, plus, if you take out the few US billionaires there, I wonder if the French actually give less than the Americans. Also note that French and Italians and most European countries pay much more taxes than the Americans do, and donation are not as tax deductible in Europe as in the US. You can also consider taxes to be some kind of charity, in France, minimum wage is huge and people who are unemployed get almost minimum wage like compensation + health care. So you can consider that in Europe, the state takes care of charity while in the US, it is taken care of by the people (with little success for health care).
[+] [-] jordanb|16 years ago|reply
A great deal of the aid to the needy in the US is provided by religious-affiliated charities. Heck, even the Salvation Army is a religious charity.
But I think you're right that the structure of a country like France allows it to run on less charitable giving. I would imagine that the welfare state eliminates the need for a lot of food kitchens and shelters, for instance.
American numbers are also inflated by a large number of organizations operating as 501c3s and collecting contributions that would not be considered "Charities" by most people. For instance, the second largest 'purpose' grouping for 501c3s is "education".[1] Is Harvard University really a 'charity?'
Notice that the largest purpose grouping (by revenue) is health care. I know that Advocate Healthcare -- one of the largest hospital chains in Chicago -- is a 501c3 which has been attacked by health reform advocates for being very stingy with charity care and engaging in aggressive billing practices.
The "healthcare" segment is over 52% of the 501c3 sector by revenue. Some of that may be charity clinics, but I imagine the vast majority of it is institutions like Advocate. If you combine the healtchare and education segments, they account for over 71% of the entire sector.
[1] http://nccsdataweb.urban.org/PubApps/nonprofit-overview-sumR...
[+] [-] houseabsolute|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] DarkShikari|16 years ago|reply
The statistic they showed was religious people being more likely to give at all: this doesn't say anything about how much they give, or the distribution of giving.
It's dangerous to extrapolate too much from limited data.
[+] [-] adriand|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] spamizbad|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] 3pt14159|16 years ago|reply
[+] [-] w00pla|16 years ago|reply
Most churches take care of homeless and the helpless and help members of their congregation (in whatever situation, including bereavement).
In the USA, a lot of the top tier universities were started by churches. Surely this isn’t a bad thing? AFAIK, almost 30% of hospitals in the USA are owned by the Catholic Church.
The Catholic Church (which receives most of its money from abroad) basically built the education and healthcare system of Lesotho (as an example).
Saying that they aren’t charities just because you have an irrational hatred towards churches isn’t a reason. If you want an echo chamber for religion bashing, you should maybe try www.reddit.com/r/atheism.
[+] [-] jmtulloss|16 years ago|reply