Transferrable skills Poster (PDF)

Philanthropy: the effect of income and religion on charitable giving
Exam no. Y1397465
Method

Background

• 620 participants (only 503 selected for
analysis) from different backgrounds
in the USA, age range 18-92; Male n=
300, Female n= 320.
• Demographic information was
collected from the participants.
• This study focused on the relief efforts
after Hurricane Katrina.
• Participants were shown a video
presentation of the food bank charity
in Tuscaloosa, AL.
• Participants were then asked to decide
how much money (from $100) they
wanted to donate to this charity.
• Participants were asked questions
about the recipients of these
donations and answered some survey
questions on poverty and other issues.

• Religious practices emphasise the responsibility the rich
have towards the poor.
• Church attendance and resulting religious attitudes have
an effect on charitable donations worldwide (Reitsma,
Scheepers, & Grotenhuis, 2006).
• Church attenders are found to contribute more to charity
(Lunn, Klay, & Douglass, 2001).
• Previous research also suggests that educational
attainment and household income could also be useful to
predict monetary donations (Lee & Chang, 2007).

Research Question
This current study aimed to examine whether
household income and religious values effect the
amount of money an individual would donate to
charitable organisations.

It was hypothesised that individuals with a higher
household income and who highly value religion
(church attendance) will make larger charitable
donations than those with a lower income who
place less value on religion.

• A two way independent ANOVA was conducted
to compare the main effects of household
income and value placed on church attendance
(religion) and the interaction effect of these
variables on amount donated to charity.
• There was a significant effect of household
income on the amount donated to charity;
F(2,488), p <.001.
• However there was no significant effect of
religious value or interaction between the two
independent variables (p > .05).

Discussion

1400
1200
1000

Amount Donated ($)

Hypotheses

Results

800

Low income
600

Medium
Income
High income

400
200
0
-200
-400 Low value

Medium low value

Medium

Medium High value

High value

Value placed on religion

Figure 1: The amount of money donated to charity as a function of household
income and religious values. Error bars show +/- 1SE of the mean.
References
Lee, Y.-K., & Chang, C.-T. (2007). WHO GIVES WHAT TO CHARITY? CHARACTERISTICS AFFECTING DONATION BEHAVIOR. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 35(9), 1173–1180.
Lunn, J., Klay, R., & Douglass, A. (2001). Relationships Among Giving, Church Attendance, and Religious Belief: The Case of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 40(4), 765–775.
Reitsma, J., Scheepers, P., & Grotenhuis, M. T. (2006). Dimensions of Individual Religiosity and Charity: Cross-National Effect Differences in European Countries? Review of Religious Research, 47(4), 347–362.

• The results demonstrate that only
household income had a statistically
significant effect on the amount of money
donated.
• Inspection of the figure shows that those
with high income made the largest
donations overall. The biggest donation
amounts were made by those who highly
valued church attendance and had high
income despite the religious variable being
non-significant.
• These findings could be explained by those
with higher incomes having greater surplus
income which can be donated without
consequence on personal finances.
• Value placed on church attendance is an
abstract measure of religion therefore
further studies may be required to
investigate the role of religion in charitable
giving.