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Are We in a New Golden Age of Giving?

An Outpouring of Charitable Giving Is Redefining Generosity
Paul Edwards | posted 11/02/2007
This article provided by the Engstrom Institute

• In January 2004, Joan Kroc, the widow of hamburger king Ray Kroc, bequeathed $1.5 billon to The Salvation Army to build and operate more than two dozen community centers throughout the country.
  
  
• In June 2006, Warren Buffett, the world's second wealthiest man, announced he would give away 85 percent of his wealth to five foundations, a cumulative gift estimated to be worth more than $43 billion. That same year, 21 U.S. donors made charitable gifts of $100 million or more.
  
  
• China-born Li Ka Shing, Asia's wealthiest businessman, announced in March 2007 he will contribute $100 million to the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy in the National University of Singapore.
  
  
• All U.S. donors contributed slightly more than $295 billion in 2006, up from $283 billion in 2005 (To comprehend that amount of money, imagine receiving a check for $808 million every day for an entire year.).
  
  
• The Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability reported that donations to its 1,200 members increased to $8.6 billion, a rise of nearly 23 percent. Out of the one million-plus registered tax-exempt charities, more than 90 Christian organizations, which raised a minimum of $37 million in private support, made The Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual list of 400 largest U.S. nonprofits.
  
  

Something extraordinary—call it an unprecedented, immediate and yet seismic phenomenon—is happening before our eyes. Its cachet is the color of money, yet all the dollars we're talking about may be just a prelude to a new day of unimagined possibility for Christian ministries.

Dawn has broken on a new golden age of giving.

Whether it's a legion of volunteers rebuilding houses for victims of Hurricane Katrina, or the Tata family of India, which donates between 8 to 14 percent of the annual net profits from its holding company, Tata Sons Ltd., to a variety of causes, including science, medicine, social services, rural welfare, performing arts, education and the needs of children, an outpouring of charitable giving is redefining generosity.

What kind of money are we talking about? Where is it coming from? And what might such emerging generosity mean to grateful recipients and equally deserving Christian ministries, large and small, hoping to match their passion and purpose with donors?

A Rich History Lesson

You have to go back a century to appreciate what distinguishes today's second golden age of giving from the first.

From 1890 to 1920, robber barons and steel magnates embodied the fortune of the industrial revolution. The Kellogg family of Battle Creek, Michigan, made its money through cereal and built a legacy of hospitals. Andrew Carnegie forged his massive wealth out of steel, and then populated American cities and towns with thousands of free public libraries. John D. Rockefeller founded Standard Oil to feed America's growing need for gasoline and gave his money away for education and art—as did Henry Ford, Leland Stanford, and the Vanderbilts. They spurred each other to do what government shouldn't do and companies can't do.