42% of Americans Give to Charities That Help the Poor, Study Finds

A majority of Americans — 70 per cent — believe that society has a moral obligation to help the poor, but only 42 per cent donated money last year to organizations that serve poor people, a new survey has found.

The telephone survey of 1,002 adults was commissioned by World Vision, a charity based in Federal Way, Wash., that assists poor people around the world.

“We wanted to take the pulse of Americans and their attitudes toward the poor,” says Robert Odom, director of World Vision’s Chicago office. “That pulse, we found, is not very strong.”

Just 14 per cent of those surveyed said they donated money to fight poverty abroad.

One-third of the respondents said they volunteered at organizations that serve the poor; nearly 20 per cent said they donated both money and time to such groups.

To obtain results of the survey, contact Jonathan Miller at World Vision at (253) 815-2157.