Are believers and non-believers equally charitable?

Question

Does the charity of believers most often focus on religion-related things?

What are your favorite ways of giving (or favorite organizations)?

Also, do you have any special ones you give to around the holidays or other certain times of the year?

Guess I count myself as a young atheist *not* so low on the list...

Yes, time counts if my hair to Locks of Love does too. : )

Answer 1

http://www.stjude.org/stjude/v/index.jsp?vgnextoid=f2bfab46cb118010VgnVCM1000000e2015acRCRD
http://www.savedarfur.org/content
http://www.one.org/
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/

These are the organizations that receive donations from me year round. Of course after tragedies such as Hurricane Katrina, 9-11, the 2005 tsunami and the recent cyclone- the donations are rerouted to organizations that send immediate assistance for these causes.

The majority of Christmas gifts we give are either items bought on the charities' websites (such as the St Jude and Save Darfur store) or a donation to a worthy cause made in that person's name.

I do not concern myself with the religious affiliation of the group. I concern myself with the work they do and what percentage of the money I donate goes towards the actual cause.

As for the "believers" or "non-believers" who gives more, I can not say. I will say that 1/3 of my income is given to charity, every single year.
Seriously.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVTN0jskXXg

Answer 2

Actually, no they are not. The book "Who Really Cares?" studied tax records in the United States and discovered that conservative Christians out give any other group in the country. Young Atheists were lowest on the list.
The argument is that most democrat and non-religious people believe it is the government's responsibility to take care of the poor, not individual people.

Since I am on the road I cannot give my time to charities, but I do give other things. Right now my husband and I are sponsoring a single mom and her two kids in Mississippi through the Box Project. Once a month we send them a box with items in it for each of them, mostly basic needs and some fun stuff too, it's great charity that I recommend to all (it has NO religious affiliation btw).
The Box Project is a lifelong commitment to helping one family out of poverty, but they have a smaller program in which you adopt a family JUST for the holiday season.

I asked a question about this a while ago:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AmHTNnG9o20eoL7VKAnV17zty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071024133351AAjQBaI
and got some GREAT suggestions for charities. You might want to look it over if you're looking for a new charity this season. I think it's wonderful when ANYONE has a giving heart! =]

Answer 3

Yes. There is no part of the brain that says that you HAVE to belong to a religion to have morality or be a decent human being. Look at John Lennon. He was an Atheist and did much good. He started many charities still operating today. I think that the religions charities (Christian Children's fund, I'm looking at you) are for indoctrination as much as helping the needy.

Answer 4

i give to the local animal shelter, the local community radio station, and the salvation army and angel tree during the holidays. also, i always give to the veterans when they are soliciting. oh yeah and i support scouting. and the local schools. not only do i give my money, i also give time to volunteer, and i have adopted a dog from the shelter. also, i don't buy from stores that use sweatshop labor and i buy fair trade food when i can. oh yeah, and i shop in almost exclusively locally owned and operated businesses.
p.s. the conservative christians give more to their church or tct, not to any decent organization. i am sure if they didn't take church donations into account you would find that they give the same or less than other religions or atheists.

Answer 5

Oh, all the little Christians are going to say atheists hold mass orgies instead of be charitable, but that's just not true. So typical, those self-righteous God-worshipers.

My favorite way is working for a suicide prevention group called "Break the Silence." Basically if there's any way that I can help people with mental illnesses, I'm there.

Answer 6

Ask Bill Gates.

I like his philosophy the best. He focuses on education and getting people out of the ruts they are in.

"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime"

Edit: My charity. No I do not give. Trust me though taking in 3 extra kids and "teaching them how to fish" instead of allowing them to think they are victims is all I really have at this moment.
Edit" Oh yeah..Thanks Donkey. I have deductions taken out of my paycheck for United Way. 15 bucks a paycheck...it's not much but I guess it is something.

Answer 7

I would tend to believe that they would be about equal, and everyone believes in something whether it be there is no god (athiest) or there is a god... As for who gives out more I tend to believe that depends on the person. While christian ideals say that you should does not mean people do... and how about giving time does that count? For example does it count that I donate a bit of my time to Unitedway? but I do not donate money to them.

Answer 8

the last ent wife is correct,but that's assuming the data is unbiased.I agree with it though it seems plausible.
Personally we sponsor 2 children from the christian miracle network.I always wanted to but my wife actually was doing it before we met.I would like to sponsor 3 more,1 for each of our children.

Answer 9

My charities are the WWF, NAACP, ACLU, The Make A Wish Foundation, NPR, and Green Peace for the most part.

Answer 10

Total giving to charitable organizations increased to $295 billion in 2006 (2.2 percent of GDP). This is an increase of 1 percent from 2005 (when adjusted for inflation).


The majority of that giving came from individuals, $223 billion (75.6%). Giving by individuals grew by 1.2 percent (when adjusted for inflation).


Giving by bequest was $22.9 billion (down 5.1 percent from 2005), foundations gave $36.5 billion (up 9.1 percent), and corporations donated $12.7 billion (down 10.5 percent).


Religious organizations received the most support--$96.82 billion. Much of these contributions can be attributed to people giving to their local place of worship. The next largest sector was education ($40.98 billion).


Arts, culture and humanities charities reported the largest increase in donations. These groups received $12.5 billion (up 9.9 percent).


All but four categories of charities saw increases in contributions: giving to human services groups declined by 12 percent (when adjusted for inflation), giving to international organizations dropped by 12 percent, giving to health charities dropped by 5.4 percent, and giving to environmental and animal organizations declined by 1.3 percent. These charities may have had inflated levels of giving in 2005 as a result of disaster related giving (Hurricane Katrina, Asian tsunamis, other natural disasters). If those gifts are excluded, then donations to human services charities remained about the same and gifts to international charities only declined by 3.3 percent.




These are statistics from a website. Now you get thumbs down for giving statistics straight from another website. Unbelievable.