What’s even more sad is the fact that while the percentage being given had declined, the number of people has declined, seemingly double the amount in giving. Fewer and fewer people are giving less and less money, and where it is being given, whether to a house of worship, an animal shelter, or any other organization, the donations have dropped off considerably.

I am a full-time volunteer with Awake In America (http://www.AwakeInAmerica.org/), and right now we are revamping the site to move it from an HTML-based site to one managed by a content management system. This will allow greater options for us with volunteers wanting to work on the site or write content for the site.

Over the past four years, getting donations has been horrible. Even in the aftermath of Katrina, most people thought first of organizations like the American Red Cross, which often is the first thing that comes to mind. During that time, we received about $125 in cash donations — but, to be fair, we did receive quite a bit of equipment which was used to ship out to people who lost CPAP or BiPAP machines due to Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rite. For the emergency relief program, the $125 cash donation helped cover shipping for about six shipments. In all, we made 97 shipments to various areas of the U.S. All is on the organization’s site, now strictly for historical purposes, at:
http://www.AwakeInAmerica.org/Katrina/

While the number of individual donors has declined, it seems as though corporate donors, aka corporate sponsors, are also declining.

This is a topic, sadly, that people could talk about day-after-day, and much of the time many do just that. When the talk stops, for many, it’s an “out of sight, out of mind” thing.

Keith, it seems your fiance’s 10% number comes from the Biblical sense from her upbringing. Us husbands are usually blessed with wives who are more compassionate than ourselves and that is often why they push more for the charity than guys. Most people would agree that 10% is a good number to shoot for, and if you are in debt (hopefully you are working on fixing that situation) less is probably the only option, but as Dave Ramsey says, “never in the bible does it say to stop tithing” (for any reason). i.e. even if you can barely manage it, maybe try to give 1%to keep you grounded. I like Rick Warren’s plan, he and his wife started at 10% when they got married and added 1% each year thereafter… that’s what we’re shooting for.

one of my avorite charaties is Compassion International, they do a good job of keeping down the admin costs and getting the $$ to those who need it with about a 50/50 physical/spititual need $$ allocation. http://www.compassion.com/

Whether and how much to give is a personal decision, but I have never met a tither who ever regreted the decision.

I am completely nonreligious. But part of me thinks that I should live extremely frugally, with lots of roommates, and doing all my own cooking, and having only free entertainment such as library books, because even then I would still be much better off than most people in the world, and then I should donate all the extra. In the right hands, it’s amazing what a difference even a small amount of money can make.

However, another part of me is selfish. So I compromise on 10% because although it’s much, much less than I could give, it’s also much, much more than the average person gives. It’s a very random figure. Anything between 5% and 40% would probably fit those criteria!

I do make it only 10% of my net income because I figure that at least 10% of my taxes are also going to help people less fortunate than I am. Also, I have not been including income from investments because that’s been almost nothing, but I’m thinking of re-evaluating that decision.

You can define 10% in a manner you are comfortable with. Personally, I use 10% of my gross salary to determine my giving. Tithing can also be considered 10% of your take home, or even 10% of your disposable income.

And yes, your time contributed to worthwhile causes is equally important. Spending time working for a charitable group can give further ensight into what you are contributing as well as helping others.

I cannot think of anything more generous than giving time and money to whatever is most important to you, whether it is your place of worship, a community food drive or anything else you choose.

Please do give with love and generosity and do not worry too much about the rules.

EMB

If, like me, you are not bothered about following old testament biblical principals then feel free to do as you please. There is an assumption in many (prob. not all) US personal finance books that the reader is a Christian (in a bible believing sense). It annoys me a great deal when this is not stated explicitly.

As in all things, do whatever works for you.

-THR

Giving to charity is not reallly connected to religious beliefs in the sense that lots of non-religious and atheist people also think that its important to give to charity. I find it difficult to think of a good reason not to give to charity.

Being unselfish is probably one of the defining characteristics of being a good person, and giving to charity is one way of being unselfish so I think that is how being good and donating are related.

Getting to financial freedom is a psychological exercise as well as a financial one. Giving some of our income to others that are worse off than us can make us appreciate more of what we have. Having that kind of thought can make us less tempted by advertising and other marketing stunt.

If we have seen how $3 can provide one day meal for someone else, we will appreciate those $3 lattes more.

Is he concerned with how much is given? Has he been jaded by the church and doesn’t want to tithe?

While I believe it is ok to question things, I would definitely want to explore whether there are non-financial motives or underlying reasons behind the very question itself.

Thanks for the pointer to kiva.org. Just made my first loan. Awesome organization. Thanks!

http://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm

and doing some research on the charity you intend to donate to. Donating is great but it can be really frustrating when you find out later that your money was wasted.

GJ
http://www.60in3.com