A study reports to show a decline in giving by Evangelical Christians to their own Churches. The recent survey found a decline in charitable donations among Evangelical Protestants in the U.S., with both the frequency and total amount of giving decreasing. The study was preformed by Infinity Concepts and Grey Matter Research.
The report, called “The Giving Gap: Changes in Evangelical Generosity,” surveyed 1,039 Evangelicals in the first half of 2023. In 2021 74% donated to a church in the past year, this declined to 61%. Evangelicals also donated less to charities. This year only 50 per cent of Evangelicals giving to charity in 2024, compared to 58 per cent three years earlier.
The average amount given by Evangelical donors has decreased from $3,572 in 2021 to $3,053. This was true regardless of income level. Among high earners, above $100,000 annual income, the amount who gave declined from 90 to 83 percent. The drop was most pronounced among those earning less than $30,000. In that cohort giving declined from 81 per cent to 66 per cent.
The percentage of Evangelicals who did not donate to church or charity has increased from 19 per cent in 2021 to 31 per cent in 2024. According to the report, this decline aligns with a nationwide drop in giving. According to the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy the inflation-adjusted individual giving fell 2.4 per cent in 2023. The same group does not believe that this is a long-term trend.
According to another group, the Stewardship report, regular churchgoers were more than twice as likely to donate than ‘cultural’ Christians, with 71 per cent contributing monthly. The report found that trust levels play a crucial role in donation habits. 76 per cent of regular donors trusting their church significantly more than other institutions
However many evangelicals continue to give. Thousands volunteered to package meals at the non-denominational Liquid Church. The New Jersey megachurch, with several locations across the state, assembled approximately 1.2 million meals to be sent overseas over the holiday season. Over the weekend, altruists at each of the Liquid Church locations performed a variety of charitable acts as part of the “Christmas Outreach.”
“We simply couldn’t have done this without an army of incredible volunteers. We have seen an incredible response to our annual Christmas Outreach from the church community and our local communities across New Jersey,” said the church’s Communications Manager Brooke Stempert. She also explained how nearly 6,000 volunteers devoted their time to the effort.
Stempert explained how “All seven of our church’s campuses served as meal-packing locations so we could aim to meet our goal of packing over 1 million meals to feed the hungry this Christmas season.“ She added that there was “incredible energy in the room at each of our campuses,” saying volunteers “were excited” to “help make a difference this Christmas season.”
The meals are headed to African Nations such as Zambia. This event was coordinated with the charitable group Rise Against Hunger. This year volunteers at Liquid Church beat their previous year’s effort by over 200,000 meals. The Church plans to expand its philanthropic efforts to provide wells to those in need. According to their website, they’ve already drilled 536 wells in 11 nations.