Religious Habits of Young Americans Spell Trouble for Fund Raising

Baby boomers give less to religious causes than their parents’ generation did when they were the same age as boomers are now, new research has found. And members of Generation X, people born after 1965, give even less than boomers.

What’s more, younger people attend religious services far less regularly than their parents or grandparents.

The research, conducted by Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, is based in part on an analysis of data from 8,000 households that have been followed and interviewed on a range of topics every two years since the 1960s.

Giving to religion is an important trend for fund raisers of all kinds, since numerous studies have found that people who give to religious causes — and attend services — tend to donate more to groups of all kinds.

In the study by Indiana University, researchers found that people aged 35 to 49 gave $789 to religious causes in 2000, while people their parents’ age, who were 35 to 49 in 1973, gave $991, for example.

The difference in giving among the generations appears to be related to attendance at religious services, which has declined nationwide, said Bill Enright, one of the Center on Philanthropy researchers.

A generation ago, more than 40 percent of Americans attended weekly religious services, but that figure has shrunk to about 25 percent, he said.

“Charitable fund raisers need to understand differences in generational behaviors,” said Patrick Rooney, the Center on Philanthropy’s director of research. “Will Generation X become more like their parents or grandparents as they age and start giving a higher share of their income to religion or other charities? Or are their behaviors going to remain fixed?”