2009 Congregational Economic Impact Study

2009 Congregational Economic Impact Study - Many congregations are concerned about charitable giving in these times. The Alban Institute and Lake Institute on Faith & Giving at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University have collaborated to assess the challenges congregations have faced over the past two years and to provide information that will help inform changes in current practices. This report also takes an in-depth look at how congregations responded to the recession and which types of congregations fared better during the recession and which types were more adversely impacted.

Divided We Stand, United We Fall: Religious Pluralism, Giving, and Volunteering

The study examines the relationship between, on the one hand, service attendance, volunteering, and giving and, on the other, religious pluralism, religious prevalence, and religious distribution.

Dearly Departed: How Often Do Congregations Close?

The study estimates the rate of congregational mortality in the United States.

Changes in American Megachurches: Tracing Eight Years of Growth and Innovation in the Nation’s Largest-Attendance Congregations

The report focuses on developing patterns of megachurches observed across three national surveys done in 2000, 2005 and 2008 in a partnership between the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, Hartford Seminary and Leadership Network.

The Challenges and Opportunities of Rural Philanthropy in America

The research investigates the dimension and forms of giving in rural America.

Religious Giving in Tough Times

During the past month we have had numerous inquiries as to the implications of the current financial crisis on religious giving and subsequent budget planning for congregations and faith-based institutions. While we have no crystal ball to provide you with definitive answers, we are pleased to share with you insights from the research available to us via the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. We will also offer some practical suggestions and guidelines based on our observations and conversations with leaders of faith-based institutions and organizations.

Geography and Giving: The Culture of Philanthropy in New England and the Nation

was enthusiastically received by the Boston community. Paul S. Grogan, President and CEO of The Boston Foundation, asserted, "Based on the superb research conducted at the Center on Wealth and Philanthropy at Boston College, led by Director Paul G. Schervish and Senior Associate Director John J. Havens, this report identifies and analyzes the mosaic of cultural, historical, demographic, and socio-economic factors that shape the giving patterns in greater Boston, Massachusetts and New England - adding dramatically to the understanding of our distinctive regional culture." The Boston Foundation, Grogan notes, published this report in order to provide important new knowledge, to stimulate a conversation about the practice and power of philanthropy, and to strengthen Greater Boston's nonprofit sector.

Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life

An extensive new survey by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life details the religious affiliation of the American public and explores the shifts taking place in the U.S. religious landscape. Based on interviews with more than 35,000 Americans age 18 and older, the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey finds that religious affiliation in the U.S. is both very diverse and extremely fluid.

Bank of America Study of High Net-Worth Philanthropy

High Net-Worth households, those with incomes of greater than $200,000 or assets in excess of $1,000,000, represent 3.1 percent of the total households in the United States. This very small number of households has an enormously disproportionate impact on charitable giving – they are responsible for approximately two-thirds of all household charity in this country. The Bank of America Study of High Net-Worth Philanthropy is the most in-depth quantitative study of those households aimed at understanding not only their charitable practices, but also the motivations behind them. Bank of America, one of the leading providers to both philanthropic individuals and institutions, partnered with the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, one of the nation’s leading academic centers for the study and practice of philanthropy. Based on a random survey of over 30,000 households in high net-worth neighborhoods across the country (1,400 responses), this landmark study has major implications for the philanthropic sector: those who donate, the nonprofits that benefit from those donations, and the financial institutions that support them. These are the initial findings from the study. There are some very interesting findings relation to religion in this report.

The Nature and Causes of the U-Shaped Giving Profile

The U-shaped income-giving profile, where those in the lower and higher income brackets give higher percentages of their income to charity, has been the subject of much dispute. This article from NVSQ, Vol. 36, No. 2, June 2007 (pages 218-238) from a study using data from 16,442 households, supports the presence of the U-shaped relationship, while showing how findings contradicting the U-shaped profile suffer from selection bias that systematically deflates reported lower-income giving levels. Nonetheless the paper goes on to state that the U-shaped profile does not reflect typical household behavior. Instead it is driven almost entirely by the 5% of households that contribute one tenth or more of their after-tax income. Traditionally, the presence of so many highly committed, low-incomes households has been attributed to religious sect affiliation by the poor. The authors find that an additional explanation is that these highly committed, lower-income households are dramatically wealthier than other members in their income classifications, in part reflecting the presence of lower-income, higher-asset, retirement-aged households.

From: The Nature and Causes of the U-Shaped Charitable Giving Profile, by Russell N. James III (University of Georgia) and Deanna L. Sharpe (University of Missouri-Columbia), in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 2, June 2007 218-238. DOI: 10.1177 / 08997640006295993

Insuring Consumption and Happiness Through Religious Organizations

Using data from the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CEX) and the National Survey of Families and Households (NSFH), this paper finds that households that contribute to a religious organization are better able to insure their consumption against income shocks and that individuals who attend religious services are better able to insure their happiness against income shocks. Robert Putnam, in Bowling Alone (2000), argues that community (and hence also religious) organizations play an important role in providing social capital and in fostering norms of mutual aid and reciprocity among individuals. Others (Iannaccone 1992 and Berman 2000) show that many of the costs of religious participation, such as adherence to religious strictures, can be rationalized as mechanisms to prevent free-riding on benefits provided by the religious group; in other words, religious organizations have mechanisms to limit adverse selection. Moreover, the monitoring of fellow members of the organization is likely to reduce moral hazard. One would therefore expect religious organizations to be well positioned to provide consumption insurance against income shocks, which is one of the hypotheses that this paper investigates.

From: Insuring consumption and happiness through religious organizations, by Rajeev Dehejia (Tufts University, NBER), Thomas DeLeire (Michigan State University, Congressional Budget Office), and Erzo F.P. Luttmer (NBER, Harvard University), in Journal of Public Economics, Volume 91, Issues 1-2, February 2007, Pages 259-279

From Piety to Professionalism – and Back? Transformations of Organized Religious Virtuosity

“Patricia Wittberg’s From Piety to Professionalism – and Back? Transformations of Organized Religious Virtuosity provides a rich, well-researched addition to the literature on the dynamic between faith communities and their nonprofits. Wittberg explores the impact on the religious orders of changes in the relationship between nonprofit organizations founded by religious orders and women’s organized virtuosi – Catholic nuns, Protestant deaconesses, and mission society members. Wittberg’s book is particularly valuable as one of a few studies that examine how nonprofits build and sustain religion, addressing an often-overlooked critical issue for scholars and practitioners of religious identity and mission-driven service. Weaving together historical documents, she generalized her findings to other religious institutions and Christian denominations.” Review by Jo Anne Schneider, in Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, vol. 36, no. 4, December 2007 730-755

Giving USA

The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2006

• In 2006, an estimated $96.82 billion was giving to religious organizations. This is an increase of 4.5 percent (1.2 percent adjusted for inflation) from 2005.
• Giving to religion has increased over time, but at a slower rate than giving to other subsectors.
• As a percentage of total giving, religion’s share has fallen from roughly half (45.7 percent) in 1966 to just under one-third (32.8 percent).
• An overview of the growth in giving to religion from 1966 to 2006.

• Over a 20 year span 1987 – 1996 and 1997 – 2006 (adjusted for inflation), giving to religious organizations showed the lowest rate of growth of the various subsectors.
• Religious organizations received the largest amount of donations during each of the five-year spans over the last 40 years. During this time, contributions to this subsector have nearly doubled (a 94 percent increase).

The Role of Foundations in American Religion

Robert Wuthnow and D. Michael Lindsay

The authors analyze the role of American philanthropic foundations in supporting religion in the period from 1999 to 2003.

LFI Greater Indianapolis Congregational Giving Survey

The Lake Institute on Faith & Giving (LI) at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University honors the legacy of Thomas and Marjorie Lake and encourages and performs work that examines the links between faith and giving in diverse religious traditions. One way the Lake Institute examines connections between faith and giving is by pursuing research into important philanthropic issues relevant to congregations, communities and nonprofit organizations. Congregational giving is perhaps one of the least understood ‘philanthropic issues,’ and LI is committed to building a lasting scholarly foundation for the exploration of the vital role religion plays in philanthropy. This research will be useful to both the academic and faith communities in the United States and abroad. This report marks a milestone for the Lake Institute as we present the results of the first LI Greater Indianapolis Congregational Giving Survey. With the generous collaboration of the Indianapolis Center for Congregations, 1,492 surveys were mailed with questions about congregational giving patterns in 2005. Data were collected and processed confidentially by the Indiana University Center for Survey Research. The analysis was completed by the Center on Philanthropy’s highly skilled Research Department. This document is a compilation of some of the findings that we thought might be of particular interest to faith communities, and was presented to a group of Indianapolis area congregations at a Lake Institute/Indianapolis Center for Congregations luncheon in September 2006.