3 ms·

This article sure doesn't answer the "why" question well. I'd love to see some deeper analysis, especially related to tax breaks, the number of available charit

• dcaldwell 16y ago
  Houses of worship and religiously affiliated organizations pull the largest % of donations in the US according to studies. Given the much higher presence of churches and church attendance in the US as opposed to Europe, I could see that driving per capita donations in the US up. However, unless it's only the Christian population that gives more per capita, I'm not sure why other highly religious countries wouldn't also rank high. The article does address tax breaks in some countries. In regards to the number of charities in the US, not counting houses of worship, we have around 1 for every 300 persons. Not sure what that level is in other countries but would love to find out.
  • btmorex 16y ago
    Religious charity also doesn't really explain it. Even if you removed 100% of the U.S. charitable giving to religious organizations, they would still easily rank #1. My guess is that it's mostly cultural. For example, a lot of large employers will even match employee contributions up to a certain level every year to the charity of the employees choice.