How Much Do You Give To Charity

I've noticed a buzz in the right wing blogosphere and right wing talk radio over Barack Obama's charitable giving.  I looked at the stats and it seems fairly normal to generous compared to the average american.  But how much do people really give to charity?

There's semi-anonymity for people here, and if you're like me, you may be wading through your tax docs tonight, and have the stats at the ready.

So how much do you give?

Here's Obama's totals (according to the National Review (I know)):

2006. 6.1%

2005. 4.7%

2004. 1.2%

2003. 1.4%

2002. 0.4%

2001. 0.5%

2000. 0.9

I'll compare that to mine for recent years (don't remember pre 04 that well)

2007  1.8%
2006  2.1%
2005  2.5%
2004  5%

One of my good friends died in 2004 and I made several donations in his honor, which explains the outlier.  These are charitable donations, not political donations.

It's a lot easier to make donations when you're making money, which partially explains Obama's increases (I think political awareness might explain it too).  Unfortunately, I can't same the same.  My donations have been fairly static other than 94, the money I've made has increased.  

I think talking openly about this stuff causes people to be more charitable.  I started giving money to charity in larger donations several years ago when some of my colleagues at work mentioned how much they gave to certain charities.  It kind of woke me up to the fact that I was stingy.  I still may be stingy on a relative scale.

How do you measure up?  Can you do more?