Chapter 27: The Role of Religion in Giving
Though the number of Americans who affiliate with a particular religious tradition has decreased over the past few decades, religious and spiritual beliefs continue to serve as a primary motivation for charitable giving overall. In an increasingly global society where people of different backgrounds live side-by-side, fundraisers need to have a breadth and depth of understanding around faith in philanthropy. Engaging faith in fundraising requires embracing various ways of expressing faith, multiple expectations among diverse constituencies, and welcoming people’s personal stories of religion and spirituality. This chapter examines the role of religious giving in the philanthropic sector and the impact of increasing religious diversity and disaffiliation on fundraising. It discusses multiple religious and spiritual motivations that inspire donors. While the institutions, forms of giving, and motivations are evolving, all signs indicate that faith will continue to be a significant factor in philanthropy for the foreseeable future.
David P. King
David P. King, Ph.D., is the Karen Lake Buttrey Director of Lake Institute on Faith and Giving and Associate Professor of Philanthropic Studies at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. His research interests include exploring the practices of twentieth and twenty-first century American and global faith communities and how the religious identity of faith-based nonprofits shapes their motivations, rhetoric, and practice. He is the author of God’s Internationalists: World Vision and the Age of Evangelical Humanitarianism (UPenn Press 2019).
Rafia Khader
Rafia Khader is a Program Manager at the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving and the Muslim Philanthropy Initiative at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. She is also the Managing Editor of the Journal of Muslim Philanthropy & Civil Society (Indiana University Press). She has over a decade of experience working with the American Muslim community as a nonprofit administrator, researcher, and volunteer.
David King and Rafia Khader discuss the chapter with Bill Stanczykiewicz, Achieving Excellence editor and Director of The Fund Raising School.