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Americans Continue to Reduce Giving to Churches

  • Religion Today Religious persecution, missions, Christianity around the world
  • Published Jul 09, 2012

The economy continues to impact Americans' giving to churches and nonprofit organizations, according to a recent Barna Group survey showing that one-third of those surveyed had reduced the amount they gave to churches in the past three months, Baptist Press reports. "Americans' considerable charitable behavior remains intact, but each year seems to bring new economic burdens to donors," said David Kinnaman, Barna's president. "Church donors stayed more consistent in their giving than did those donating to nonprofits. However, church donors are now showing increasing fatigue. We expect the next six months to be continued cautiousness for donors of all types." Barna also found that one-third of the roughly 1,000 adults surveyed said they had been affected in a major way by the economic downturn, that 41 percent of adults had reduced giving to nonprofits in the last three months as a result of the economy, and that 11 percent had completely dropped all giving to churches in recent months. In the fall of 2008, just 4 percent had cut giving to churches entirely.