This morning, I interrupted my husband’s sports section reading to ask him what percentage of our income he thought we should donate to charity. Currently, it’s a paltry percent each year — a fact I feel ashamed of given the state of the economy and how well off we are compared to many others in the community and around the globe.

Shouldn’t this be the year when I should step up my giving? After all, during recessions, giving suffers slightly.

Plus the data show we’re stingy.
The Center on Philanthropy at the University of Indiana has found that the average household gives roughly $2,200 a year to charity. Last year, my family gave just $1,355 in cash donations, and a mere $323 in household items.

According to this column from MSN Money’s Liz Pulliam Weston, the Obama’s gave just under 6 percent of their income to good causes last year. John McCain gave a quarter of his income, but his wife is an heiress.
Another interesting stat in that column suggests donating 3 percent of your total income.
That sounds like a reasonable figure, one I might not get to this year, but could aspire to for 2009.

What do you give? How do you decide?

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 6:03 pm and is filed under giving. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.