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| In this 2012 file photo, a shopper looking for clothes at the Salvation Army store in Staten Island, New York, receives a surprise $100 donation. |
The idea of helping the poor and the less fortunate goes back to the 1700s,when the United States was a British colony. In the 18th century, people gavemoney to religion and education. But as the country grew and people did wellfinancially, the giving included the arts, health and social causes.
“Giving has been part of our fiber since the beginning of our country,” said Aggie Sweeney, vice chairperson of the Giving USA Foundation. “Americanshave always seen giving as an important part of what makes our communitieswork. In America, we’ve had a belief of taking care of our own and wanting to be able not to only have government take care of things, but to invest in what we feel is really important.”
Now, more than two hundred years later, religion and education still receivethe most money from Americans. Religious organizations have received more charitable money than any other cause or group over the last 60 years.
But things are changing. Overall, religion now takes in a smaller percentage ofgiving. This could be because the United States is seeing a decline, or drop, inreligious beliefs, and less people go to church regularly.
“There’s been a steady decline over the years,” Sweeney said. “We do know, as we look at 40-year trends, that the proportion of American households that are actively involved in and participating in religious or spiritual communities has declined and we believe that that accounts for much of the difference in giving to religion.”
Most of the money to charity was from individuals. Another report, from thejournal Chronicle of Philanthropy says that the top 50 donors from the U.S.gave a total of $9.8 billion. Americans can use charity gifts as a tax deductionon their yearly tax return forms. In 2012, the average cash charitable education on the tax returns was $4,449.
Corporations, or businesses, gave $17.7 billion. That is five percent of the total money donated. Ms. Sweeney says those numbers suggest philanthropic, or charity, giving is not of great importance for many U.S. corporations.
“Corporate giving increased a bit, but when we look at it as a percent of pre-tax profits, it dropped,” Ms. Sweeney said. “I would love to have corporationsfeel more of a sense of responsibility and commitment to the communitiesthat helped to make them successful. We just aren’t seeing that.”
I’m Jonathan Evans.
VOA’s Dora Mekouar wrote this story. Anne Ball adapted it for LearningEnglish. Hai Do was the editor.
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Words in This Story
generous –adj. giving freely or sharing money
charity –n. the act of giving money, food, or other kinds of help to people who are poor, sick, etc.
less fortunate –adj. not as lucky
fiber –n. strength or toughness of character
proportion - n. an amount that is part of a whole
cash- n. money
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2014 U.S. Charitable Giving
Religion – $114.90 billion
Education – $54.62 billion
Human Services – $42.10 billion
Health – $30.37 billion
Arts/Culture/Humanities – $17.23 billion
Environment/Animals – $10.50 billion
Public/Society Benefit – $26.29 billion
Foundations – $41.62 billion
International Affairs – $15.10 billion
Source: Giving USA 2015: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2014.
