The Decline And Fall of Charity

As I contemplate both working for a non-profit organization (just have to find one that's looking for an employee first!) and possibly starting up my own non-profit (that's going to take a lot of prayer), I read a very sobering and troubling article about how charities in the U.S. are struggling mightily with the problems we're having in our economy. Some of the big charities are really struggling, and I'm sure the small ones that weren't mentioned are as well.

There are some disturbing trends within giving to charities by both Christian individuals and churches, and it looks like it's getting worse with each generation. Here are some statistics that stood out to me:

- Fewer than 5 percent of churchgoers actually tithe 10 percent of their income
- Fewer than a third of twentysomethings give anything at all
- One 2007 study found 85 percent of church dollars are spent in-house, doing up the environs to snag more “seekers.”
- For every dollar evangelical churches now spend, they give about two cents to missions.

It was interesting but not surprising to me to find out that megachurches are worse in outside giving than small churches. When you have a gajillion people on staff and you have to spend $30,000 on set design for a new message series, not to mention producing CDs of your worship band, etc. (I know not all megachurches are like this, I'm just thinking of one that used to be close to my heart) - then you're not going to have much money after all that to actually impact the world outside of your church.

Anyway, I would recommend reading the article. It's kind of depressing, but hopefully the trend will reverse itself.