Size and Frequency of Charitable Donations - Essay Example

The distribution, size and frequency of charitable donations Introduction A donationrefers to a gift given by legal or physical individuals primarily for charitable purposes. The gifts aim at benefiting a particular cause. A donation’s presentation may be in various forms. These forms include services, money offering, either or used commodities such as toys, clothing, food and vehicles. Donations also incorporate relief, emergency and humanitarian aid items. The development aid support may also relate to medical care necessities such as organs or blood for transplant. Charitable gifts of either goods or services may also get referred to as gifts in kind. Charitable contributions simply refer to a great way of simultaneously helping people in need and give oneself a tax break. The size, frequency and distribution of charitable donations are more under the influence of individual’s personal values than the charity campaigns carried out to market the donation program as the document analyzes (Brooks 2007, p.35). Discussion The document analyzes the aspects that play significant roles in determining an individual’s behaviors towards charitable giving. The amount contributed through a given charitable donation; frequency of contribution to charitable donations and the distribution of charitable donations is dependent of various aspects. Individual charitable donation has a broader definition than the donations from organizations. According to researches done charitable donations have great influence form personal values of potential donors. For decades, research has shown that high amounts of charitable donations have a positive relationship to factors such as high wealth, high income, great religious participation, age and marriage. Volunteerism, high education attainment, nationality of the donors and proportion of earned wealth in comparison to inherited wealth are also some of the factors that influence the charitable donation patterns. All these aspects have a relationship with personal values of individuals either social or financial aspects of that individual (Friedman & McGarvie 2003, p.37). Gender, religion and ethnicity are also personal values that the influence charity is giving. Gender, which is one of the main personal values of human kind, offers some influence in charity donations. According to the research done by Boston College, shows that donations are higher on male respondents as opposed to the female respondents. Male donators have an approximate vale 1858 USD for households’ donations while the research credits the female with an approximate value of 1594 USD. The aspect hence indicates donation has something to do with an individual’s personality. Religion is another personal aspect. Individuals who possess a deep devotion in religion matters have a direct link to the charity donating contrary to their counterparts who are not deep in religious matters. The factor hence reveals that charity donations get influenced by personal’s religious character to some extent (Frenkel & Lev 2009, p. 49). Ethnicity is an aspect that is in a person. It in one or another way influences the individual’s behavior towards making their charity donations. The research got done by an independent sector’s giving and volunteering 2001 found that whites were more likely to make charity donations of approximately 90.3% while blacks would contribute 80.6%, Hispanics 85.2% while other ethnic groups/races were liable to make approximately 77.6%. For instance, when all households got averaged whites made contributions that amounted to one and a half times more than the Hispanics. According to the research, the white households recorded 27% higher incomes than the Hispanics. However, Hispanic contributed less charity donations of 1.9% as opposed to the whites considerably. The aspect hence clearly reveals ethnicity had an influence in determining these individuals’ contributions (Oppenheimer & Olivola 2010, p. 60). Volunteerism is a self driven motif. An individual gives out of personal conviction of willing to do a given activity. Considering the degree to which charity donation become contributed it is clear that individuals who volunteer make a more comprehensive size of donation than the individuals who do not volunteer themselves. The research indicates that volunteered charity donations are more than non-volunteered contributions by two to four times. Age is another personal attribute that plays a part in describing the charity donations’ behavior. The Boston College’s research indicates charitable donations are found to increase constantly with age until to an age of sixty five years at which the trend begins to drop in the amount of annual charitable donations. In the United States, volunteering and giving indicate that the average dollar donation increases between the ages of twenty-one and sixty four. The donation amounts to a minimum amount of 698 USD and a maximum donation of 1781 USD. The donations are equivalent to 1.7% to 2.8% of income per household (Rubin 2002, p.76). Marital status is another personal aspect that influences the charity donations behavior. In the United States majority of households approximately 60.3%, have the married couples as leading in charitable donation participation as opposed to widowed, single, separated and divorced individuals. The married couples’ participations amount to approximately 92.5% as opposed to 82.2% to 87.5% for the rest of the groups. Some of these differences come about partly because marriage seems to be wealth formation engine. From the research that got conducted, the net worth of a married couple is 40% more that the labor cost of two people combined. However, the net worth of a married couple is 35% more than the income of two single people. Basing on the marital status of a person the extent to which he or she engages in charity practices is greatly influenced. People who get married makeup to 60.3% of the households; however, they make 79.1% income, retain 81.9% of the money they have and donate 76.2% to the charitable organizations (Brooks 2007, p.36). Educational attainment is another personal aspect that greatly influences the charity donations behavior. Even without a particular curriculum on philanthropy, education has a close link with increasing participation in charitable giving and average donation. It also has some influence on the percentage on the contributed income. The research indicates that the 68% of the donations were from the households that had less than high school education. The households that had a high school diploma recorded 86% donations while 95% went to the respondents of college graduates. In terms of income controlling education, also possessed a sole positive influence on the amount of donations an individual donated (Friedman & McGarvie 2003, p.38). The household income among the college graduate respondents was more than that of respondents who had graduated from high school with about two and half times. Ferris and brown were among the researchers suggested that education be a socializing factor as well as contacts making occasion. It hence lowers the costs of identifying certain avenues charity donation participation. They also suggested that increased efficacy be the probable cause of increasing the engagement benefits. The personal affiliations towards a charity are another personal aspect that determines the charity donations behavior in one way or the other. The influence is on the basis of a long term relationship with the charity. It might be having resulted from family illness all any other close related experience. The research indicated that most of the individuals who have at one point in time benefited from a charity donation are the best donors. They not only willingly contribute but also make huge charity donations. The aspect hence draws a conclusion that personal experience has an influence on donation behaviors of an individual (Friedman & McGarvie 2003, p.39). To human beings, giving offers a sense of well being and also satisfies social conscience. The aspect lays its argument on individual’s personal will of improving the lives the beneficiaries or their motive to make a positive influence on the society. The aspect simply indicates that individuals donate out the personal conviction of making meaningful improvements in the society but not other factors. Human life is all about competition that forms the personality of people. The notion hence puts a pressure of donating among some people as others are doing. The aspect attributes to an account that people contribute with a personal interest of donation so as to get seen (Frenkel & Lev 2009, p. 50). It is, therefore, evident that individuals make charity donations solely due to personal values and none other forces. Both the willingness to contribute an amount of charity donation that an individual makes is, as a result, of some personal factors. It is hence clear that the charity contribution is solely under the influence of personal values of these individuals. Part -2 A practical charity donation was towards the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The response towards that disaster recovery included the federal agencies in the government like federal agency in emergency management and local level agencies, non-governmental organizations, charities, national and federal guard soldiers and private individuals. The government of the United States called for all well wishers to offer their charity donations. They president of the United States offered a press conference in the efforts of campaigning towards the charity donation. The campaign also got made through the internet in the attempts of calling individual states as well as people to offer their donations towards the charity donation that was meant to help the victims of the tragedy (Brooks 2007, p.37). President Bush requested for federal funds and also enlisted former presidents Bush and Clinton to assist in raising the additional voluntary contributions. The campaign to some extent yielded some fruits with the governments France, Germany, Canada, United Kingdom and Mexico helping the United States’ government for the disaster relief. Other individuals also offered their hand of assistance through making their charity donations. To a given extent the donations made helped victims of Hurricane Katrina. However, the success of the campaign is in question (Frenkel & Lev 2009, p. 51). Slow response to that distance is one of the aspects that put the success of charity donations in question. There were claims that many victims especially in the New Orleans were without food and water for three to five days after they were hit by the storm. Among the first parties to express criticism of the crisis management was the pentagon. They claimed that the Bush administration caused delays of the authorized and scheduled military hospital ship. The military aid included military forces from other nations. The monetary donations that got made from the charity contributions were below the set standards and hence the charity donation did not yield as expected (Friedman & McGarvie 2003, p.40). The aspect reveals how unsuccessful the charity donation was simply because it did fully help the victims of the hurricane. The aspect, therefore, clearly reveals that charity donations are not dependent on the campaigns done but rather on the physical values of people. If campaigns help in influencing to make their donations, the Hurricane Katrina’s charity donation will have been fully successful. The aspect hence draws into a conclusion that charity donation gets solely determined by personal values (Rubin 2002, p.77). References List Brooks, A. C. (2007). Who Really Cares: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism -- Americas Charity Divide--Who Gives, Who Do. New York: Basic Books. pp.35- 37 Friedman, L. J., & McGarvie, M. D. (2003). Charity, philanthropy, and civility in American history. Cambridge [u.a.: Cambridge Univ. Press. Pp 37-40 Frenkel, M., & Lev, Y. (2009). Charity and giving in monotheistic religions. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter. pp. 49-52 Oppenheimer, D. M., & Olivola, C. Y. (2010). The Science of Giving: Experimental Approaches to the Study of Charity. Hoboken: Taylor & Francis.pp. 60 Rubin, M. (2002). Charity and community in medieval Cambridge. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp.76-77 Read More