Donations to religious groups drop for second consecutive year

flying money

Although religious institutions still receive the highest amount of charitable donations in the United States, there has been a two-year decline in donations, according to a report by Reuters that analyzes Giving USA's 2011 data.

Overall, individual giving accounted for 1.9 percent of disposable income last year, the same as in 2010 and 2009.  Donations to other sectors, including education, human services, health, arts and culture, and environmental or animal organizations all increased, the report notes.

Writing for the Christian right news site, One News Now (sponsored and filtered by the American Family Association), Rick Dunham of Dunham+Company claimed, "The decline in attendance among mainline denominations, the economy, and the 'baby boomer generation that is not living out a biblical philosophy of giving and stewardship' are likely all to blame." His group helps churches "advance the Kingdom of God" through ministry fundraising that "is built on a biblical theology of fundraising."

D. Beeksma

One of the growing crowd of American "nones" herself, Deborah is a prolific writer who finds religion, spirituality and the impact of belief (and non-belief) on culture inspiring, fascinating and at times, disturbing. She hosts the God Discussion show and handles the site's technical work. Her education and background is in business, ecommerce and law.

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  • http://www.houseofbetazed.com Mriana

    Blame the Boomers. Could it be that each generation is getting smarter concerning where they want their money to go?

  • http://www.awaypoint.wordpress.com Valerie Tarico

    Wow. That is good Saturday morning news –especially in the context that other donations are up.

  • Robert Evans

    One of the other contributing factors is that houses of worship are the most immature in their approaches to donors and this comes at a time when other US nonprofits are much more sophisticated in techniques and romancing donors. Our firm, EHL Consulting, works in the Jewish community and congregations that have adopted more contemporary approaches are seeing increases in giving.

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