Reconciling Estimates of Religious Giving

Abstract

Since religious organizations have long been the single largest type of recipient of American giving, the authors undertook in 2003 to examine the Giving USA estimating procedure for giving to religion and compare Giving USA estimates with other approaches for estimating contributions to religion. The yearbook of philanthropy since 1955, Giving USA uses research done by other organizations to estimate giving to religion. Two studies form the basis of Giving USA's estimates. The first is a report from INDEPENDENT SECTOR, which used a national survey of congregations and estimated total giving to religion of $50 billion for 1986. The second is the annual rate of change in giving to religion, which is derived from denominational reports compiled annually by the National Council of Churches of Christ-USA. Since 2002, data about Catholic parish giving has been incorporated into the denominational list that is the basis of the estimated rate of change in giving to religion year to year.