November 11, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
Giving by Protestants, as a share of their after-tax income, to church-run, charitable activities has dropped to a 35-year low, according to a new report.
An analysis of more than 100,000 Protestant congregations shows that in 2002, the latest year for which data are available, church members gave an average of 0.38 percent of their income to “benevolences,” or gifts to support missions, education, and social services. That proportion is the lowest since 1968, when such data were first collected. At that time, church members gave 0.66 percent of their income for church-run charitable activities.
The report, published by Empty Tomb, an Illinois religious, research, and social-services organization, is based on giving data covering nearly 30 million Protestant church members, reported annually by their churches to the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA.
In 2002, according to the report, church members gave, on average, a total of $686 to their churches, a slight increase from the previous year after adjusting for inflation, and the seventh straight rise in annual giving.
The report examines not just donations for social-service programs, but also gifts that go toward meeting a congregation’s own financial needs, such as salaries, capital improvements, and other expenses.
Copies of the report, “The State of Church Giving Through 2002,” are available for $28 each, plus shipping charges, from Empty Tomb, 301 North Fourth Street, P.O. Box 2404, Champaign, Ill. 61824-2404; (217) 356-9519.
