A new Barna Research Group study shows that giving to churches and ministries dropped significantly in 2000.
Barna’s annual survey of giving to nonprofit organizations, churches and nonchurch religious organizations found support levels dropped markedly in the past year. The vast majority of Americans continue to give to charities, and churches continue to receive a majority of those donations. However, donor loyalty to churches is on the decline.
The survey found more than three-quarters of all adults (78 percent) donated money to a nonprofit organization or a church in 2000. That represents a six percentage-point decline from 1999, and a nine-point drop from 1998.
While Americans remain the most generous people on earth, giving away about $100 billion each year, average annual giving per person plummeted by 15 percent in 2000 to a mean of $886. In comparison, the mean in 1998 was $1,377 a drop of more than one-third in just the past two years.
Even among born-again Christians there was a 16 percent decline in dollars contributed to all nonprofits and churches in 2000.
While churches continue to take in an estimated 60 percent of all dollars given to non-profit organizations, giving to churches is also falling. In 2000, six out of 10 adults (61 percent) gave money to one or more churches, a small decline compared to the prior two years (66 percent). The average church donor contributed a mean of $649 to churches last year, down from $806 the prior year.
Born-again Christians were far more generous than the average church supporter. Born-again adults, who comprise 40 percent of the adult population, were more likely than others to give to a church (77 percent did so in 2000, although that figure was also lower than the prior year’s figure of 84 percent). The average annual donations of born-again adults to churches totaled $1,166 last year. That’s 80 percent more than the average adult gave, but still some 19 percent lower than the previous year’s giving.
The most generous group of church donors are evangelicals, a small subset of the born-again population who are just 7 percent of the national adult population. Not only did a higher proportion of evangelicals give to churches (81 percent), but their average aggregate giving to churches was much higher ($2,097).
Many Christian churches teach the biblical principle of tithing — that is, giving 10 percent of one’s income to the church — but relatively few people follow the practice. One out of every six adults (17 percent) claims to tithe, but a comparison of the amount that people gave to churches and their household income suggests that just 6 percent actually donated one-tenth of their income (pre-tax or post-tax) to churches.
Born-again Christians were about four times more likely than nonborn-again adults to tithe (12 percent vs. 3 percent). Many people also hope to be able to tithe in the future. Two out of every five born-again adults who admitted to not currently tithing stated they hoped to do so in the future.
Slightly more than one-third of all Americans (36 percent) reported giving money to a religious organization, other than a church or worship center, in the past year. The average per capita amount given to such organizations by those donors was $176. The Barna survey estimated the aggregate giving to such organizations to be near $9 billion.
Adults who were more deeply involved in communities of faith and in ministry activity gave even greater amounts to parachurch organizations. About half of all born-again adults (47 percent) gave to a parachurch ministry in 2000, offering an average total of $264 to such entities. Evangelicals were, again, the most supportive of such efforts. Overall, two thirds (63 percent) gave to such work, averaging $502 in gifts beyond their church donations.
George Barna, president of the company that conducted the study, noted significant challenges facing churches.
“Two major trends are in force, “ he said. “First, the Baby Bust generation, which includes adults in their 20s through mid-30s, barely gives to churches or religious causes. Second, their predecessors, the Baby Boomers, who are in their mid-30s to mid-50s, are generous donors but simply do not assume that they ought to give to churches. They are value-donors, giving to organizations they perceive to be providing personal benefits or significant, unduplicated value to society.
“As these two generations become more prolific within churches, their tendency to give less to churches will challenge ministries to reconceptualize their budgeting, fundraising and planning practices," he said.
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