At first blush, it seems to make policy sense, too. The rich fabric of America’s civic life, from Boy Scouts to community orchestras to soup kitchens, is the envy of the world. Its diversity reflects in part how much it depends on private givers with diverse interests and motives, and not just on the government. Their giving is encouraged by the charitable deduction, enacted in 1917, just four years after the income tax itself. The deduction lets people feel they are beating the system even as they practice virtue.

But there’s a question of fairness that complicates the issue. Overwhelmingly, the deduction benefits the wealthy ”” and the rest of the country has to make up the gap.

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The recession continued to affect how much Americans gave to charity last year, and the triple whammy of Superstorm Sandy, a national election and the looming fiscal cliff may cut how much we donate in the crucial final month of 2012, experts say.

Charitable giving overall increased by $6 billion in 2011, an increase of almost 4 percent from 2010, according to the 2012 report by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Individuals gave $217 billion, compared with $209 billion in 2010.

“A little less than two years out from the end of the Great Recession, we’re starting to see charitable giving increase modestly each year,” said Geoffrey Brown, executive director of the Giving USA Foundation, which publishes the report.

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The Church of England and other religious groups are not necessarily acting for the good of the public, Britain’s charity watchdog has ruled.

Its officials decided that religion is not always for “the public benefit” as it denied charitable status to the Plymouth Brethren, an exclusive Christian group, for one of its churches in Devon.

In a letter to the Plymouth Brethren, the watchdog set out its most recent decision that “there is no presumption that religion generally, or at any more specific level, is for the public benefit, even in the case of Christianity or the Church of England”.

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The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling upholding the Affordable Care Act””or “Obamacare,” as some have dubbed it””has advocates of faith-based nonprofits concerned about potential unintended “collateral damage” to their bottom lines.

The worry: Chief Justice John Roberts’s nod to lawmakers’ wide discretion to impose taxes””and to condition taxes to influence behavior””could pose threats both to charities’ tax exemptions and to donors’ tax deductions.

“It’s an issue that’s definitely on our radar,” said Rhett Butler, government liaison for the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions.

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Three months ago, Amy Green’s life made a drastic turn. Although she was forced to spend Labor Day 200 miles away from home, she’s thankful for a labor of love that spans 365 days a year.

“On June the 2nd, 2012 my son was involved in a motorcycle accident,” said Green. “He suffered a spinal cord injury, actually he’s a C5 prognosis, had a broken neck….”

After 30 days of sleeping on a couch ”“ Green moved in across the street to the Ronald McDonald House.

“If the Ronald McDonald House wasn’t here, our families would be sleeping in their cars, they’re sleeping in the waiting rooms….

Read it all. If you have the time, I encourage you to check out the photo library of this wonderful place there.

Since its founding in 1998, Water Missions International has traveled all over the globe.

Now the nonprofit agency is traveling from West Ashley to North Charleston.

Water Missions, which provides sustainable safe water to people in developing countries and those hit by disasters, is moving its headquarters today to a new location near Virginia Avenue on the Old Navy Base.

“Water Missions International really shows what kind of world we live in,” said North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey. “It’s an agency that cares about people. It doesn’t care who the people are, but it cares about making their life better when tragedy strikes.

Read it all from the front page of yestserday’s local paper.

Ever wonder how charitable the people are who live in your state or community? It turns out that lower-income people tend to donate a much bigger share of their discretionary incomes than wealthier people do. And rich people are more generous when they live among those who aren’t so rich.

That’s according to a new study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, which breaks charitable giving down by ZIP code. It found that generosity varies greatly from one region of the country to another.

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Watch it all–if it doesn’t bring tears to your eyes, something is wrong.

Months of warnings have failed to prevent a serious malnutrition crisis in Niger, Save the Children has said.

The charity says more than six million people are affected there, and about 18 million across West Africa.

It says a rising number of children now need medical treatment for the condition, as the crisis is reaching a new level of seriousness.

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Under new rules announced on Wednesday (May 2), the Vatican will more closely oversee the operations of Caritas Internationalis, a global confederation of 162 national Catholic charities. The decision comes after the Vatican last year vetoed the re-election of the organization’s then-secretary general, Lesley-Anne Knight, complaining of a lack of coordination with Vatican officials.

The new rules issued by the Vatican secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, will require all Caritas Internationalis officials make a formal promise of fidelity to church teachings and leaders.

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Almost nine out of 10 charity bosses fear big donations from wealthy backers will be hit by Chancellor George Osborne’s cap on tax relief for charitable donations, according to a survey.

The findings of the survey of 120 charity chief executives and senior executives conducted by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) will intensify the pressure on the Government to rethink its plans unveiled in last month’s Budget.

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Episcopal Bishop Terry White of Louisville and his colleague Bishop Chilton Knudsen of Lexington have set a wager on Saturday’s Cardinals – Wildcats game. The amount of the wager is shrouded in sacred mystery. If the Cats win Bishop White makes a donation to the Cathedral Domain Camp and Conference Center for the Diocese of Lexington. If the Cardinals win, Bishop Knudsen makes a donation to All Saints Camp and Conference Center for the Diocese of Kentucky.

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For the fourth year in a row, President Obama is proposing lower tax deductions for the wealthy on donations to churches and other nonprofit organizations. And for the fourth year in a row, nonprofit groups say the change would lead to a dramatic drop in charitable giving.

The reduction, included in Obama’s 2013 budget proposal, rankled the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America.

“We were hoping this would not come up again this year. We asked that they not renew it, but unfortunately the request was not taken,” said Nathan Diament, the group’s Washington director. “It’s a real concern.”

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The International Committee of the Red Cross says it is in talks with “all those concerned” in Syria’s conflict to negotiate a ceasefire.

The group says it wants to negotiate a brief truce in the most affected areas to allow it to deliver aid packages.

Correspondents say the fact that the ICRC has spoken publicly about the negotiations shows just how concerned it is by the situation in Syria.

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From here:

Air Serv International, which provides air services to humanitarian organizations in Africa and Asia, has named one of its aircraft “Spirit of John Stott”. This is tribute to John Stott, the late Rector Emeritus of All Souls Langham Place, London, evangelical Christian leader, and author of many well known books, including Basic Christianity and The Cross of Christ. John was also the framer of the Lausanne Covenant and founder of the Langham Partnership that supports a number of initiatives for Christian leaders and pastors, particularly in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

The aircraft which has been named “Spirit of John Stott” is a Cessna Caravan 208B.

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Through some basic analysis of census data, we can see what adopting the 180 percent [of the Federal poverty] line as the definition of poverty in North Carolina would have meant over the last nine years.

In every year since 2003, the number of North Carolinians under a 180 percent line hovers around 35 percent of the population, while the number of people falling below current poverty standards averages about 15 percent.

That is, the current poverty definitions show that approximately one in six people in North Carolina are in poverty. Using the more accurate 180 percent line would increase that proportion to one in three.

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Anonymous “layaway angels” are rescuing Christmas for needy families across the nation.

Mystery donors are visiting stores and paying the balance on accounts that allow customers to pay for purchases over several months. Some donors ask the store to apply the money to children’s toys or clothing; they aren’t told recipients’ names. Nor do recipients learn the identities of the donors.

More than 15 layaway accounts totaling almost $4,000 have been paid by strangers at a Kmart in Lafayette, Ind., says store manager Vic Sutherland. “It’s pretty awesome,” he says. “With the economy the way it is, you wouldn’t expect it.”

Fantastic stuff–read it all.

Charitable giving is trickling back up as the economy heals, but it could take years to return to pre-recession levels, nonprofit leaders say.

Giving totaled $291 billion in 2010, according to the 2011 annual report by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. That’s up 3.8 percent from 2009 and follows two consecutive years of declines.

This year shows little change. Charity Navigator, a Glen Rock, N.J., organization that evaluates nonprofits, anticipates donations will be flat during the holiday season.

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Nearly one in five clients of Christian rescue missions said they were victims of physical violence within the past year, a 6 percent jump from the previous year, according to a new survey.

“It’s quite possible that the uptick in physical violence … is due to a friend or family member’s feeling of desperation and helplessness accompanying their unemployment and underemployment,” said John Ashmen, president of the Association of Gospel Rescue Missions (AGRM).

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BOB ABERNETHY: One important lobby is the Christian group Bread for the World, which fights hunger here and abroad. Reverend David Beckmann, a Lutheran pastor, is president of Bread for the World. David welcome.

DAVID BECKMANN (President, Bread for the World): Thank you.

ABERNETHY: Bring us up to date, how many hungry people are there in the United States?

BECKMANN: It’s now 1 in 7 Americans who lives in a household that runs out of food.

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Fixing a painful toothache isn’t in the budget of Brandon Crew, a 24-year-old maintenance worker and father to be.

Neither is food.

Earning $300 per week working at a local hotel, Crew said he and his girlfriend are barely “scraping by….”

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[In this work]… the 40-year veteran urban minister “takes the gloves off” and argues that much of Americans’ charitable giving “is either wasted or actually harms the people it is targeted to help.”

The reason is that the “compassion industry” is “almost universally accepted as a virtuous and constructive enterprise,” but its “outcomes are almost entirely unexamined.” Years of charitable giving at home and abroad, Lupton contends, have made barely a dent in reducing poverty and often encourage dependency. Toxic Charity offers some statistics, but more stories, as evidence that both our philosophy and practice of charity are frequently misguided.

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He’s 96 and drives an Olds Cutlass. She’s 90 and carries pre-cooked meals to the doors of those in need, stopping to chat as long as she can.

Together, they’ve put in more than 5,500 hours of volunteering.

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While the overall U.S. economy seems to be stuck in neutral, there are a few bright spots. One of them is charitable giving to the arts, which was up more than 5 percent last year.

But a new study cautions that much of that support serves audiences that are wealthier and whiter than the country as a whole.

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The Diocese of Hyderabad has launched an appeal for funds to help its local flood-stricken community, and the ACT Alliance has issued an appeal for Pakistan ”“ hit by severe flooding for the second time in just two years.

Over 5.4 million people have been affected by the floods that have hit Sindh province, southern Punjab and north-eastern Balochistan. Already 248 people have died, and communities that had barely recovered from the devastating floods of last year have seen their homes and livelihoods destroyed a second time.

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Boeing has only been in South Carolina a few years, depending on how you count its ownership interest in suppliers it eventually acquired entirely, but it’s already making its mark on the community.

As it ramps up production of the 787 Dreamliner at its campus next to the Charleston International Airport, it seems the company is also ramping up its giving, especially to area civic events and various health and education initiatives.

Last year, for example, Boeing gave $25,000 to the Trident Technical College Foundation as one of several sponsors of the organization’s ‘A Night in the Valley’ wine dinner and auction. This year, Boeing’s doubled its giving to become the sole presenting sponsor, said Meg Howle, vice president for advancement at the college.

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Operation Hope built a nonprofit powerhouse over the last decade, spinning a stockpile of donations from Wall Street firms into 27 financial education centers across the country.

But the charitable organization’s donor base has retrenched in the wake of the financial crisis. Citigroup’s foundation last year cut its giving 60 percent, to $115,000. The ING Foundation delayed paying its $300,000 commitment to Operation Hope. And the CIT Group, a lender that was once one of the organization’s biggest benefactors, stopped giving altogether.

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(Here the founder of a Catholic Worker house describes their work in an area of stark inequalities[:])

It is the best of times and the worst of times in Oklahoma City. Our perception of how we are doing depends on where we are in the great economic scheme of things. If you are in the oil business, you are riding high. Driven by the strong prices for energy, Oklahoma’s oil sector is spending money lavishly, most notably on the new 50-floor skyscraper headquarters of Devon Energy in downtown Oklahoma City. The city is investing nearly $750 million over the next few years in its central core.

But this is a tale of two cities. Just a dozen blocks from the glamour of bio-engineering research institutes, I tried to get a health department inspector to condemn a rented house which had no heat, no electricity, no running water, no hot water, and in which the sewer was clogged. The tenant is a disabled man whose neighbours allow him to use their bathroom. The inspector called the landlord, but two months later there was still no hot water and the sewer was still blocked.

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