Who gives to charity?

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: Soundbite - Interview with Arthur C. Brooks of Syracuse University - Interview

In Who Really Cares?: The Surprising Truth About Compassionate Conservatism (Basic Books), Arthur C. Brooks, a professor of public administration at Syracuse University, examines charitable giving across America. He finds that people who donate money tend to be happier than people who don't, that the working poor tend to give a larger share of their earnings than people of higher income, and that conservatives tend to give more than liberals. He credits his seemingly counterintuitive conclusions to "strong families, church attendance, earned income (as opposed to state-subsidized income), and the belief that individuals, not government, offer the best solution to social ills."

Q: Why does it matter who gives to charity?

A: We have found differences between givers and nongivers. That's important because they go against stereotypes, and if we want reasonable discourse we have to get things right. The real reason that it matters--probably the most exciting avenue of research in psychology, economics, and charitable giving today--is really all about the beneficial impact that it has on people. Tangible evidence suggests that charitable giving makes people prosperous, healthy, and happy. And that on its own is a huge argument to protect institutions of giving in this country. We simply do best, as a nation, when people are free and they freely give.

Q: The working poor give a greater percentage of their income to charity than any other group in America. Why?

A: There is an appropriate intuition that American people are really generous, and they are. But you'd think that people give away a higher percentage of their income because they can afford to, and that's not true. It turns out that the people who give the biggest percentage of their income away are the working poor in America today. Now, the "working" part is key, because the nonworking poor who have the same incomes give the least. But...