Why the poor are more generous, the wealthy more stingy

Great article in the Atlantic by Ken Stern called "Why the Rich Don't Give to Charity: The article talks about research looking into the relative size of donations among different economic classes. The findings included:

In 2011, the wealthiest Americans—those with earnings in the top 20 percent—contributed on average 1.3 percent of their income to charity. By comparison, Americans at the base of the income pyramid—those in the bottom 20 percent—donated 3.2 percent of their income. The relative generosity of lower-income Americans is accentuated by the fact that, unlike middle-class and wealthy donors, most of them cannot take advantage of the charitable tax deduction, because they do not itemize deductions on their income-tax returns.

One reasonable explaination? Low-income people are more likely to see the need than those who live more sheltered lives. When the wealthy are exposed to the issues, their generosity rises to meat the level of those in the lower economic brackets:

...when both groups were exposed to a sympathy-eliciting video on child poverty, the compassion of the wealthier group began to rise, and the groups’ willingness to help others became almost identical.

The study also found that wealthy people living in more economically diverse communities gave more than those who lived in more wealthy enclaves. To me, this all doesn't surprise me much. People who live with problems in their back-yard are more likely to be motivated and educated about the issues, and willing to help change them. But even more to the point-- and this is something I didn't see addressed in the article-- people living in communities experiencing poverty-related issues are probably asked to give more often. By virtue of where they live, they are probably part of a more diverse network of people, including people involved in non-profit and social justice efforts on a personal level. The take-away for me is twofold- 1) that our job as fundraisers is to educate and expose those with the most capacity to give to the needs that are out there. 2) we need to find ways to reach and ASK those who have the highest capacity to give to get involved. This means showing them the problem, and how it affects real people.