And yet amidst all that, something odd happened. Even during the downturn and recovery, the poorest Americans upped their charitable giving. Meanwhile, the highest-income people gave less and less, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reported in October.
The rich also give to charity differently than the poor: compared to lower-income Americans, the rich's charitable giving places a far lower emphasis on helping their disadvantaged peers. When the poor and rich are (figuratively and literally) moving farther apart, an empathy gap naturally opens up between the upper and lower classes — after all, if I can't see you, I'm less likely to help you. [...]
None of this, of course, means that the poorest Americans are giving the most to charity; the richest Americans by far give away more money. The top one percent of tax returns (comprising people earning around $500,000 or more) in 2011 accounted for nearly one-quarter of all charitable contributions, according to data from a 2011 Congressional Budget Office report. [...]
One clue lies in how the lower-income Americans give. That 2011 Congressional Budget Office report took a look at how charitable giving breaks down. According to 2005 data, the lowest-income Americans tend to give the majority of their money to churches and other religious organizations (which often use the money to help the community's needy). The next most popular kind of charity are those that help people meet basic needs.
The rich, meanwhile, are more likely to give to arts organizations, as well as schools and health organizations — predominantly hospitals and disease-specific groups (think Susan G. Komen). The source of that data, a 2007 report from Indiana University, shows that people toward the lower end of the income spectrum give a substantially bigger share of their donations to helping the poor than the very richest people.
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