I wrote this yesterday for the student textbook blog, Everyday Politics.
On January 12th, a massive 7.0
earthquake hit Haiti. Most of you watched the devastation on TV or read
about the news on the Internet. We saw dead bodies on the street. We
heard heart-wrenching tales of children trapped under the rubble crying
for help. We saw people lying on stretchers with hacksaw amputations of
their limbs.
And we responded. Fueled by social media,
including Twitter, people called the Red Cross at 90999 and texted
"haiti." To date, the Red Cross was able to bring in $8 million dollars
through that effort. Overall, individual Americans donated $150 million in four days.
That number marks a record for individual donations responding to a
particular crisis, and social media no doubt played a large role in
gathering funds.
With the ease of online donation forms and text donations, people
are able to give easier than in the past with a checkbook, letter and
stamp. Also, traditional donors are able to reach out to their less
eager donor friends on Facebook and Twitter and urge them to give.
While we have set new records for philanthropy, philanthropy is not
that unusual for Americans. In fact, giving to others has long been
considered a facet of American political culture.
Political culture is a set of widespread beliefs or values that are
shared by a community. These values are passed down from parent to
child and are taken on by immigrants as they assimilate.
American
political culture is often defined as a commitment to individualism,
capitalism, and freedom. Some have said that America's political
culture is unique or exceptional, due to the common belief in Lockean
liberalism among America's founders. Some scholars believe that
American's exceptional political culture helps to explain why we have
never had a strong Marxist or socialist party in our country. It may
also explain why the United States has been so reluctant to establish a
national health care system, while European nations have one for years.
Others have pointed to our roots as a Puritan nation and noted how that early religiosity helped shape our nation's history.
Another aspect of American political culture is our historic commitment to philanthropy. Alexis de Tocqueville noted the large number of charitable organizations in our country in the 1820s. According to the National Philanthropic Trust, 86 percent of American give to various charities and the average annual contribution was $1,620.
In a time where public morale may be at a low point, due to well
publicized indiscretions of public figures, a flagging economy, and
protracted wars abroad, Americans should take great pride in our
willingness to open our pockets to help out a people on an island to
our south.
Apt. 11d 
I’ve often wondered how much of the philanthropy wasn’t driven by Catholicism and ethnic identification among mostly Catholic immigrants. The system of schools, hospitals, and social services almost certainly could not be built today. Some of this (the hospitals) are either largely things of the past or at least no longer primarily dependent on charity, but the schools are bigger than ever. And pretty much every child in the heavily subsidized parish schools represents something like $2,000 to $6,000 in charitable contributions from somebody.
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Go us!
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It would be interesting to see a comparison of giving from other countries. Haiti offers an interesting case, because it is an international crisis. What did the Canadians give? How about the French? British, Swedes, Germans? And, how much did their governments give directly?
I do think that the personal religion in the US plays a significant role in personal giving. But, in other countries, higher taxes (supported presumably by the consent of the governed), may provide larger amounts of money through public giving.
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Interesting — instead of giving the “tax break” to the giver in Britain, it appears that they give it to the charity, something called “Gift Aid.” Interestingly complicated and different, and potentially influencing private giving.
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“But, in other countries, higher taxes (supported presumably by the consent of the governed), may provide larger amounts of money through public giving.”
Likewise, it turns out that aircraft carriers are awfully handy for relief purposes. I was just looking at Wikipedia, and they say that there are only 22 aircraft carriers on the planet, 11 being US.
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According to the National Philanthropic Trust, 86 percent of American give to various charities and the average annual contribution was $1,620.
Also, “80 percent of wealthy donors surveyed said they are most likely to make contributions to educational organizations, with religious (72%) and health organizations (70%) following in popularity.”
I certainly give money to charity, and itemize my deductions accordingly. It is not at all tooting my own horn to say my contributions last year were above $1,620. It is not tooting my horn, because I know I paid more than that in synagogue dues/ Hebrew School tuition, which is largely tax deductible. I guess it is supporting my religious institution, which is considered a “charity,” but I certainly don’t put that money on the “philanthropist” side of my mental ledger. I also write a check every year to my alma mater, which they use to pad their endowment, or upgrade their high-end gym. Same same.
If you edit the list of “tax deductible” to only those items like the health groups, and the poverty alleviation groups, that I actually consider “charitable,” the number will be far less.
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My employer hosts fund-raising software for non-profits (and yes, we’ve had a busy couple of weeks!), and I’ve chatted with a few people in the industry about Gift Aid. Apparently it’s almost as big a hassle for UK charities to receive Gift Aid reimbursement as it is for US charities to receive employer-matched contributions (<10% matchable donations are collected). One UK firm specializes in helping charities capture more Gift Aid, and apparently has gotten a bit of government heat along the lines of "we didn't expect you to actually use it!"
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When you are in the corner and have no cash to get out from that point, you would need to receive the credit loans. Because that would help you definitely. I get collateral loan every time I need and feel great because of this.
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