(OPINION) The share of Evangelical Protestant Christians giving financially to churches fell significantly in the last three years, a new survey finds.
Infinity Concepts and Grey Matter Research recently released the 41-page report “The Giving Gap: Changes in Evangelical Generosity,” which relies on data compiled via online surveys with 1,039 Evangelical Protestants through a blend of research panels in early 2024.
The information was compared to their 2021 report “The Generosity Factor,” which was based on data compiled during the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The researchers used the National Association of Evangelicals’ definition of Evangelical to qualify Evangelical respondents. The study finds that Evangelical giving is “way down” across the board in “nearly every measure.”
According to the 2024 data, 61% of Evangelical adults donated to a local church the previous year, half (50%) donated to an organization outside of a church, and 42% donated to both church and charity. Nearly a third (31%) said they donated to neither a church nor a charitable organization.
The share of Evangelicals who gave to churches fell 13 percentage points from 2021, which equates to a 17% decrease in giving.
“The proportion giving to a church fell from 74% to 61%, and the percent who gave to a nonprofit or ministry outside of church fell from 58% to 50%,” the report states. “The proportion who supported neither one rose from 19% to 31% in the past three years.”
The average Evangelical donor donates 2.8% of their household income to churches, down from 3.2% in 2021. The average Evangelical adult donates 3.3% of their household income between church and charity, compared to 4% in 2021.
Evangelicals gave an average of $2,503 to churches in the previous 12 months, according to the responses. That marks a 15% decline from the inflation-adjusted average of $2,953 in 2021. Even among those who gave to church or charity, the average total donated was $3,053, a 15% drop from $3,572 in 2021.
“The numbers paint an increasingly bleak picture of Evangelical generosity,” Grey Matter Research President Ron Sellers said. “Almost every measure of giving was down for almost every type of Evangelical. One exception is Evangelicals of color, who remained much more steadfast in their giving than did others. … Even though American generosity is down across the country, as per Giving USA, the behavior of believers should be different.”
