Struggling Middle-Class Americans Are Giving Less to Charity

The average American household is giving far less to charity than it did a decade ago.

Over the past 10 years, charitable-giving deductions from lower-income donors have declined significantly, at almost the same rate that charitable giving from higher-income donors increased. Itemized charitable deductions from donors making less than $100,000 a year declined by 34 percent from 2005 to 2015, while the same deductions from donors making $100,000 or more a year increased by 40 percent, according to a study of tax filings by the Institute for Policy Studies, a left-wing think tank.

“The growth of inequality is mirrored in philanthropy,” Chuck Collins, report co-author said. “As wealth concentrates in fewer hands, so does philanthropic giving and power.”