Report Presents Mixed Picture of Giving by Protestants

Protestant church members are donating slightly more after-tax income to activities that directly benefit their local congregations than in the recent past, a new report says. However, they continue to hold back when it comes to giving money for soup kitchens, overseas missions, and other external church activities, according to the report by Empty Tomb, an Illinois religious, research, and social-services organization.

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Giving to Religious Causes by Protestants

An analysis of 29 Protestant denominations shows that church members gave an average of $413.25, in inflation-adjusted 1992 dollars, for congregational programs and needs in 1996, the latest year for which data were available.

That marks the fourth straight annual increase after adjusting for inflation and represents 2.17 per cent of church members’ after-tax income, the highest level since 1987. In 1995, church members gave 2.14 per cent of their after-tax income for congregational needs.

Giving for outside mission work and social-service activities, however, totaled only 0.4 per cent of church members’ after-tax income in 1996, the same as in 1995 and below the 0.5-per-cent level of the mid-1980s.

Sylvia Ronsvalle, Empty Tomb’s co-founder, expressed mixed feelings about the numbers. “I want to be cautiously optimistic,” said Mrs. Ronsvalle. “But the patterns of the past year suggest that future data will be the only way to tell if this is merely a plateau rather than an authentic reversal.”

Mrs. Ronsvalle pointed out that church giving has been in an overall decline for decades. In 1968 church members gave 0.7 per cent of their after-tax income to outside missions and programs. The 1996 level represents a 38-per-cent decline from that. The share of income earmarked for congregational needs fell 12 per cent in that period, according to the study.

In addition, church giving has not kept up with income growth, the study says. Per-member donations for congregational needs and outside programs rose 41 per cent from 1968 to 1996, after adjustment for inflation, but per-capita disposable personal income rose 70 per cent, the study found.

The study, which Mrs. Ronsvalle has conducted annually with her husband, John, since 1991, found that giving is higher among conservative evangelical denominations such as the Church of the Nazarene than among mainline Protestant bodies such the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) and the Reformed Church in America. But giving has been declining at a faster pace among evangelical congregations than among mainline ones, the study found.

Giving in seven mainline denominations declined 11 per cent, from 3.32 per cent of per-capita disposable personal income in 1968 to 2.96 per cent in 1996. In contrast, giving in eight conservative evangelical groups fell 34 per cent, from 6.19 per cent of per-capita income to 4.1 per cent.

Mrs. Ronsvalle says the numbers “serve as a warning” to evangelical groups. “They continue to have membership growth, and their aggregate money has increased,” she says. “However, they could be facing the same situation that the mainline denominations have.”

“The State of Church Giving through 1996″ is available for $19 from Empty Tomb, P.O. Box 2404, Champaign, Ill. 61825-2404.