I remember a discussion with Bryan, where he claimed that the average proportion of income donated to charity is about 1% or 2%. Say somebody makes $30K, that $300/year. I can easily imagine a religious person giving a few bucks a week to church ($2x52= $110) plus maybe some extra during fund raising drives at church and work ($200 total). So people are willing to give about $30 month to charity.
Is that low or high? I'd say it's probably ok, most people can't afford to give much anyway, with mortages, student loans, children, etc. Only the wealthy could give thousands and still pay the phone bill. Fabio On Tue, 3 Jun 2003, Jason DeBacker wrote: > Why don’t more people give more money to charity? > > If you asked someone if they would rather see $50 used to > feed a child for a month or on another month cable TV (or > whatever), I can’t imagine someone not saying that the child > should be fed. But almost no one gives $50 a month to > charity and many give that to watch cable television (or > spend it on other “frivolous” purchases). > > Why does this happen? > > A few possible reasons: > - The history of charitable money getting into the wrong > hands has scared people from donating. > - There is some kind of market failure (a la the story of the > woman being attacked while the whole block watched and no one > stopping it or calling the police). > - People really don’t care about helping someone else, but > are ashamed to admit that. > - People just don’t think about donating. > > Regards, > Jason DeBacker >
