Giving USA

Giving to Religion

Take a look at what’s inside one of the most recent Giving USA releases, the topical digest on religion.  As many of you know, the Center on Philanthropy provides the research for the Giving USA reports, among other duties with the project.  What you might not know is that the Center also houses the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving.  Reverend William Enright, Ph.D., formerly senior pastor at Second Presbyterian Church in Indianapolis, has directed the Institute’s work since 2004.

Bill took some time to comment on our topical digest about religion and we’ll share some of his insights with you here.  See the bottom of this post for a product summary description.

Thanks for reading!

Melissa

Bill wrote:

Giving to religion remains remarkably resilient amidst the economic downtown. During the past two years, giving to religion has been virtually flat in terms of current dollars while overall charitable giving has declined significantly.   This, no doubt, reflects what sociologist Robert Wuthnow describes as the local character of American religion: people of faith often view their place of worship as family which means that their local congregation is their charitable priority.

Competition for the religious dollar has dramatically intensified as the number of reporting charities in the religious subsector have increased 89% from 1997 to 2007. As religious nonprofits compete for the shrinking charitable dollar, they will have to learn how to describe their unique mission with clarity, simplicity and arresting passion.

Giving USA 2010 underscores an important reality for religious practitioners; the religious landscape relative to faith and giving is changing the way donations are both given and gathered. Here are just some examples of how Giving USA 2010 helps us see the change.  (A) The top five religious groups making The Chronicle of Philanthropy Annual Top 400 Public Charities in 2008 were from the Evangelical world. (B) Faith traditions are blurring with many people attending multiple places of worship, while in the meantime, more individuals are embracing beliefs and practices from divergent religions such as Christianity and Buddhism. (C) There are significant generational shifts in giving habits and practices as well as in church attendance between those over 65 and those under 40.

How should religious practitioners plan for the future?  With savvy caution.  Beware of either budgeting your optimism or bowing to your pessimism. We are at a time in history when the “wait and see” approach may well spell wisdom.

This edition of Giving USA 2010 gifts us with a graphic overview of charitable giving from 1970 to 2009 to guide us through this moment of uncertainty. Only time will tell whether or not we will return – and if so how quickly – to the boom years of the fifties and the late nineties or to the more sobering decades of the seventies and the eighties. Prudence, a term Aristotle used to describe the good steward or household manager, may be a word come of age.

William (Bill) Enright (Ph.D), Director, Lake Institute on Faith and Giving

Be sure to visit the Lake Institute’s website (http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/LakeFamilyInstitute/)  for more on the changing landscape of religious giving.  Or, you can keep in touch with us through Twitter at http://twitter.com/lakeinstitute.

PRODUCT DESCRIPTION – Giving USA Topical Digest on Religion

The 15-page electronic publication provides Giving USA’s estimates for giving to religion in 2009* and summarizes the results of numerous other surveys and studies. The reported research explores religious fundraising, motivations for giving, and key trends in giving to religion.

– Examples from 2009 of several major fundraising campaign successes among houses of worship and religious organizations;

– The overall confidence rating for giving to religion;

– Rankings of religious organizations in The Chronicle of Philanthropy’s top 400 public charities and private foundations;

– Information on ways religious institutions responded to the recession and how fundraising fared in these types of organizations;

– Highlights of religious organizations’ participation on electronic media; and

– Tables estimating goals and pledges and Catholic parish offertory collections.

Giving to Religion is available electronically on the Giving USA 2010 website for $8.00.

*Estimates for 2009 are based on giving to religion in prior years as reported by the National Council of Churches of Christ and members of the Evangelical Council for Fiscal Accountability.