how charitable are we?

A couple of items about charity have come under my radar this week, so I thought I'd pass them along.

First, this quiz on Beliefnet.com, on how much your sense of charity affects your daily life. It covers everything from how you handle requests from homeless people on the street to your general attitude toward volunteer work.

Second, a report showing the average federal income tax deductions for charity in tax year 2004 for different income brackets:

$30,000 - $50,000: $2,132
$50,000 - $100,000: $2,663
$100,000 - $200,000: $4,130
$200,000-plus: $19,014

(From RIA, a division of Thomson Corp., as listed in Tom Herman’s April 19 Wall Street Journal column.)

Both these things beg the question: How do we stack up? (And by "we," I don't just mean Steve and me; I mean you, me, our families, our friends, the people at our churches, the people in our neighborhoods.) As for the Beliefnet quiz, I scored a 22 on a scale of 0 to 36 - definitely not the selfless giver that the top scorers are, but not a Scrooge, either:

Your sense of charity and social justice is very tied to your faith. Your charitable actions spring from both your strong sense of compassion and your religious obligations. You look toward religious leaders for guidance in where to contribute and likely participate in church or house of worship fundraisers and volunteer activities.

Sounds pretty close. I'm wouldn't say Steve and I look to religious leaders for specific guidance on where to contribute, but it's true that our choices to do volunteer work and donate money stem from a desire and sense of obligation to look out for the least among us. That lines up in large part with the social teachings of our faith.

As for charitable donations, I'm really not one to talk about how much money Steve and I give away. We do take our giving seriously. We allocate a certain percentage of our take-home pay for donations, and every December or January, we sit in front of the laptop and divvy up how much money we want to give in the next year to the various charities and nonprofits we support. It's actually kind of fun, and very rewarding, and it makes writing the checks less painful because they're planned. (It also makes it easier to say no when random donation-seekers coming calling.) I am looking forward to getting our kids in on the action. I hope they'll get excited about charities they want to include on our list, and I want to encourage them to save part of their allowance to give away. (On the other hand, I can hear it now: "But Mom! I wanted to buy an XBox!")

I also think it's interesting that people in the lowest income bracket actually donate (or at least claim to on their taxes) a higher percentage of their income than people in the next two higher brackets, who pretty much comprise the middle class. What does that say?