Abstract
This study examines the nature of charitable giving to religious organizations, (religious giving) by Canadians aged 20 plus, in 1997. Giving to religious organizations is a significant percentage of total charitable giving, 52% overall, and ranges from 33% in Quebec to 68% in Saskatchewan.
Religious giving varies substantially by denomination, from $79 a year among French Catholics to $773 among Baptists. On a per $1000 of household income basis, the giving ranges from $1.68 among French Catholics to $16.90 among Baptists (ten times higher).
Not surprisingly, most religious giving comes from weekly attendees, 74% in Canada, but the conservative Christian denominations are far more dependent on their weekly attendees (87%) than either the liberal Protestants (65%) or English Catholics (68%), who in turn are more dependent on their weekly attendees for giving than French Catholics (58%). Non-Christian faith communities receive 72% of their giving from weekly attendees. Giving is also strongly related to three other indicators of religious commitment examined in this study.
Analytical results for all faith communities suggest that religious giving changes by a smaller percentage than income, and is insignificant in four of the ten faith communities studied. Also, in all faiths giving does not change significantly when price of giving, the marginal tax rate, changes. Giving is highly responsive to religious commitment as measured by either the frequency of attendance at religious services, the perception of being "very religious" or membership in religious groups. The study concludes with some general policy suggestions for church leaders.