Conservatives give till it hurts, liberals ... not so much

From a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Arthur Brooks, on the "Giving Gap" between conservative and liberals:

Over the past several years, studies have consistently shown that people on the political right outperform those on the left when it comes to charity. This pattern appears to have held -- increased, even -- in 2008.

In May of last year, the Gallup polling organization asked 1,200 American adults about their giving patterns. People who called themselves "conservative" or "very conservative" made up 42% of the population surveyed, but gave 56% of the total charitable donations. In contrast, "liberal" or "very liberal" respondents were 29% of those polled but gave just 7% of donations.

These disparities were not due to differences in income. People who said they were "very conservative" gave 4.5% of their income to charity, on average; "conservatives" gave 3.6%; "moderates" gave 3%; "liberals" gave 1.5%; and "very liberal" folks gave 1.2%.

A common explanation for this pattern is that conservatives are more religious than liberals, and are simply giving to their churches. My own research in the past showed that religion was a major reason conservatives donated so much, and that secular conservatives gave even less than secular liberals.

It appears this is no longer the case, however: The 2008 data tell us that secular conservatives are now outperforming their secular liberal counterparts. Compare two people who attend religious services less than once per year (or never) and who are also identical in terms of income, education, sex, age and family status -- but one is on the political right while the other is on the left. The secular liberal will give, on average, $1,100 less to charity per year than the secular conservative. The conservative charity edge cannot be explained away by gifts to churches.

Perhaps you suspect that the vast political contributions given to the Obama campaign -- $742 million, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, versus $367 million for the McCain campaign -- were crowding out charitable giving by the left. But political donations, impressive as they were this year by historical standards, were still miniscule compared to the approximately $300 billion Americans gave charitably in 2008. Adding political and charitable gifts together would not change the overall giving patterns.

But here's where the charity gap really starts to make a difference for the recession of 2009: Conservatives don't just give more; they also decrease their giving less than liberals do in response to lousy economic conditions.
...
Ironically, few environments are less tolerant of conservatives and their ideas than the nonprofit world. The Chronicle of Philanthropy reported in October of 2008 that employees of major charities favored Democrats over Republicans in their private political contributions by a margin of 82% to 18%. Among the employees of major foundations, the difference was an astounding 98% to 2%. [emphasis added]

Reasonable people can disagree on politics, but the numbers on giving speak for themselves. Nonprofit executives, disproportionately politically progressive, do well to remember that many of the folks they will count on in hard times are not necessarily those who share their political views. Understanding this might make for better fund raising in a scary year -- and help us all to give credit where it is due.

Read the whole thing here.

As noted in this post, the Democratic candidate for president was far less generous (as a percentage of income) than his Republican counterpart.

The charitable giving gap between conservatives and liberals is well-established. See, e.g., here and here. Basically, conservatives are more generous than liberals. Which is ironic, given the overwhelming support for democrats over republicans by those who work at charities that are the recipients of conservatives' greater generosity.

Advent Conspiracy

Tonight's food for thought:

Biden Tax Returns: Charity begins at (someone else's) home

Senator Joe Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential candidate, released his tax returns for the past ten years last week. An analysis of his charitable giving by tax law professor Paul Caron shows that the Bidens haven't exactly been paragons of charitable giving:

... the returns show that the Bidens have been amazingly tight-fisted when it comes to their charitable giving. Despite income ranging from $210,432 - $321,379 over the ten-year period, the Bidens have given only $120 - $995 per year to charity, which amounts to 0.06% - 0.31% of their income[.]
[chart omitted]
...
It is jarring that a couple earning over $200,000 per year would give as little as $2 per week to charity. This giving compares very unfavorably to John McCain, whose tax returns show that he gave 27.3% - 28.6% of his income to charity in 2006-2007. During the same period, the Obamas' tax returns show that they gave 5.8% - 6.1% of their income to charity. [emphasis added]

Professor Caron cites IRS data that shows that the average taxpayer with adjusted gross income of $15,000 to $30,000 has charitable giving of $1,916. In contrast, the Bidens highest level of charitable giving reported in their ten years of returns was $995, or just about half what an average taxpayer making about ten times less gives to charity. In the Bidens' tax bracket of $200,000+ adjusted gross income, the average taxpayer in that bracket donates $20,434 a year, or over twenty times the Bidens' highest contribution in the past ten years, and over 170 times the Bidens' lowest charitable contribution. So much for charity beginning at home.

Of course, liberals as a group are less generous with their own time and money than conservatives, with conservatives (particularly religious conservatives) donating more of both their own time and money than similarly situated liberals. So perhaps it's not surprising that Joe Biden's reported charitable contributions are so meager. He obviously prefers to spend other people's money (i.e., yours) to help the less fortunate.

I guess when Senators Obama and Biden exhort us towards more "public service" to improve the lives of others, the fine print must read "as long as it doesn't come out of our own pockets."

And once again, John McCain leads by example, giving as a percentage of his income over four times more than Barack Obama gave in the past couple of years, and more than 90 times what Joe Biden gave in the same period, as a percentage of income.