Opinion: Few Donations Support Those in Need

While many Americans who give to charity say they do so out of a desire to help the less fortunate, a new study has found that the majority of donations do not directly benefit people in need, writes Sheryl Sandberg, a Google executive and board member at Google.org, in The Wall Street Journal.

In 2005 less than $78-billion of the $250-billion donated to charity explicitly helped the economically disadvantaged, according to the study, which was commissioned by Google.org and conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University.

Ms. Sandberg writes that the gap between intentions and actions with regard to charitable giving is biggest among the wealthiest donors, and that the results of this study matter because individual donations are a significant source of support to charities.

Ms. Sandberg urges Americans to examine how their actions reflect their attitudes toward helping others.

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