Nonprofits with Christian values will never get donations from some adults: study

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Sunday, October 01, 2023

A community volunteer helps a family carry gifts out during the Families Feeding Families event at the Salem Community Center on November 24, 2021, in Houston, Texas. | Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Across all generations, less than half of respondents in a recent Barna survey said a nonprofit organization having Christian values would make them more likely to support that organization financially, while significant minorities also stated having “Christian values” would make them less interested in financially supporting a nonprofit organization.

The survey of 2,000 adults conducted May 23–31, defined Gen Z as adults born between 1999 and 2015; millennials as those born between 1984 and 1998; Gen X as those born between 1965 and 1983; boomers as those born between 1946 and 1964, while Elders are adults born before 1946.

Asked whether having Christian values would make them more or less interested in financially supporting a nonprofit organization, millennials and Gen Z participants showed the least interest in financially supporting nonprofit organizations with Christian values.

Only 34% of Gen Z and 35% of millennials said having Christian values would make them more interested in financially supporting a nonprofit organization. Some 31% of Gen Z and 33% of millennials said having Christian values would make them less interested in supporting a nonprofit.

Approximately one-third of the two generations said having Christian values would not make them more or less interested in supporting a nonprofit.

Of the five generations of adults surveyed, Gen X adults and elders cared the most about nonprofits having Christian values, as 43% of respondents from each group said they would be more interested in giving to organizations with these values. Some 20% of Gen X adults said they would be less interested in giving to a nonprofit with Christian values, while just 14% of elders felt the same. Another 36% of Gen X adults were neutral on the issue, while among elders, 43% expressed neutrality on giving to nonprofits with Christian values.

Boomers expressed the highest share of neutrality on whether a nonprofit organization having Christian values makes them more or less interested in giving financially. Some 44% of them said it didn’t matter. Another 38% of boomers said having Christian values would make them more interested in giving to a nonprofit, while 18% said it would make them less interested in giving.

A previous Barna survey of 2,016 adults conducted from Nov. 12-19 in 2021, showed that of all the generations, Gen Z was most likely to completely trust churches with their financial support and the least likely to not trust them at all.

Some 33% of Gen Z adults said they “completely trust” churches with their financial support, 35% said they “somewhat trust” them, 15% said they “somewhat do not trust” them, while 17% said they do not trust churches with their financial support at all.

The most likely response across all generations, however, is that people “somewhat trust” churches with their financial support.

That same year, another study showed that only an estimated 13% of Evangelicals tithe even though a majority say it is a biblical commandment. It further showed that just half of Evangelicals donated less than 1% of their income annually

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