how much to donate to charity

July 1, 2007 8:37 PM

Suppose I wanted my charity donations above the median but nothing fancy. Family and friends are no help as we never talk money. How should I calculate the budget line item?
posted by bukvich to religion & philosophy (8 comments total)

The US Department of State says the average US citizen gives 2.2% of their net income.
posted by acoutu at 8:41 PM on July 1, 2007

My medium-term goal is to get to 5%, and my eventual long-term goal is 10%. Think of tithing, only instead of letting religious leaders decide how to spend your money you're having a say in its positive use. For centuries, people gave 10% of their incomes to "the church." But 5% is still very healthy, and better than most.
posted by croutonsupafreak at 8:46 PM on July 1, 2007

You could talk to your accountant or tax person and figure out how much you'd have to donate in order to get a significant tax benefit, and donate that amount. It's sure to be well above the median.
posted by The World Famous at 10:13 PM on July 1, 2007

Something to consider: a friend who works at a non-profit suggested that instead of our monthly $100 to various locations, we instead donate $1200 to one organization per year. She pointed out that all donations cost the same amount for the organization to process, so the orgs get less return on smaller donations.
posted by librarina at 10:28 PM on July 1, 2007

Set up a separate bank account and transfer some percentage each month into it--say 5-10% of your net. You'll be surprised how quickly that adds up. As acoutu points out, at that rate you'll be well above the average. We use that account to fund memberships in groups we support like the EFF and then have a charity slush fund available for when a friend asks for support, for example, for their breast cancer fundraiser and stil have money to donate to other causes.

I understand librarina's position that if you give one larger sum it's likely that a smaller percent (though I believe this as to be small amount) of the donated funds will go to administrative processing. For my spouse and I, though, we'd prefer to spread what we have to give around.
posted by donovan at 10:40 PM on July 1, 2007

My company offers a direct donation option where you can automatically have x amount taken out per paycheck (either a percentage or a fixed dollar amount). They then compile all donations for each specific charity. It's very convenient.

For additional donations, I do something similar to what donovan suggested, which is set aside a separate fund for charitable donations. I have my set list of charities that I donate to throughout the year, and have some extra for ones that pop up (special fundraisers, sponsoring someone in a marathon, etc.) I keep track of all of it in a spreadsheet so I know exactly how much I've donated.
posted by bedhead at 7:44 AM on July 2, 2007

Ask yourself why are you giving in the first place? I assume that you really want to use your money to help others, and not just trying to give enough to keep up with what others are doing.

I would encourage you to consider not starting based on what others give, but based on what you really can afford. Doing it this way forces you to actually evaluate how you are spending your money and make difficult choices about whether you need to spend your money on yourself.

Think about how rich we are in America (I'm assuming your American, appologies if I'm wrong). Honestly I think its really sad that we only give a few percent on average. For all the talk about helping the poor, etc etc, we are really greedy with our own money.

I make more than we need to live on, and we try to live below our means. We are followers of Jesus, and we have committed to always give at least 10% to others and to our church, but at this point in our lives we can afford to give more, so we have budgeted 20%. We have discovered that giving our money away brings us more joy than spending it on ourselves, and that it slows us from spiraling towards materialism and consumerism.


Reading this back over, I realize it sounds really preachy. That wasn't my intent - sorry. Heres a less preachy response - whatever you decide to give, have a lot of fun with it! You get to help out organizations that you feel strongly about, you get to make a difference! Enjoy the process of deciding who you will give you and enjoy the priviledge you have every month/year/whatever to partner with them in what they are doing.
posted by jpdoane at 7:59 AM on July 2, 2007

One might say that you're not really giving, unless it has an impact on your life. Unless you start to feel pinched, or have to go without something you really wanted, you're not really making a sacrifice.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:48 AM on July 3, 2007 [1 favorite has favorites]