By Tom Purcell

Ah, the giving season is upon us – the best time of the year to be an American.

According to Giving USA 2017: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2016, American giving rose to $390 billion last year – a 3 percent increase over the prior year.

Americans give around 3 percent of our collective income to charity – more than the citizens of any other country. Better yet, these are individual Americans, not the government, who are generating the lion’s share of the contributions.

According to the National Philanthropic Trust, the vast majority of U.S. citizens donate to charity – and 91 percent of high net-worth households do. Though most of the contributions come in small amounts, the average household contribution equals $2,520 – no small amount of generosity.

Giving USA says individual Americans gave an estimated $281.86 billion in 2016 – an increase of 3.9 percent over the prior year. Individual giving accounted for 72 percent of all charitable giving in 2016.

The balance of giving, some 28 percent, came from foundations ($59.28 billion), bequests ($30.36 billion) and corporations ($18.55 billion).

In 2016, the United States government gave about $40 billion in foreign aid to more than 100 countries – only about 10 percent of what our individuals and private organizations gave.

The fact is America is the most generous country on Earth, and most of the giving is coming from individuals sharing their hard-earned dough.

According to a 2006 report by journalist John Stossel, Americans give 3 1/2 times more, per capita, than the French, 7 times more than the Germans and 14 times more than the Italians.

Though not all Americans are as generous as they could be.

One might assume that the more liberal folks in America – folks who voice their concerns about the poor – would be more likely to donate to charitable causes. But that turns out to be a myth.

Stossel set up a Salvation Army bucket in two places: Sioux Falls, S.D., and San Francisco, Calif. San Francisco has a lot more dough and a lot of people who classify themselves as politically liberal; only 14 percent of the people who live there attend church. Sioux Falls is a rural, middle-class community in which half the folks are churchgoers.

So which city gave more? The Sioux Falls folks won hands down. Stossel pointed out that the simple reason why is that liberal folks tend to believe the government should take care of the poor, whereas more religious folks tend to be big believers in giving their own time and money to help a variety of charitable causes.

Stossel found, in fact, that almost all the people who donated to the Salvation Army in Sioux Falls were churchgoers. And that churchgoers are four times more likely to give to charity than those who are not.

Another interesting finding was that the people who give the most, as a percentage of their wealth, aren’t the richest Americans or even middle-class Americans – they’re the folks on the lower end of the economic scale. They give almost 30 percent more of their income than anybody else.

In any event, the holiday season is upon us, and it is the favorite time of the year for Americans to give to individuals and to the charities of our choice.

Bolstered #GivingTuesday, a global day of giving that now falls on the first Tuesday after Thanksgiving, the giving season is off to a great start. On #GivingTuesday, more than 2.5 million individuals donated $274 million – nearly $100 million more than last year.

As I said, it’s the giving season, the best time of the year to be an American.

The University of Southern Indiana chapter of Student Veterans of America (SVA) has been awarded a $2000 grant from Bank of America and the SVA. This is the second consecutive year USI’s SVA chapter received the award to continue its work on campus supporting veterans and enriching the community.

“We are grateful to have attained this award for the second year. This grant is vital to the sustainability of our community projects to show our service to the community,” said Chaze Patrick, a graduate student in the Master of Public Administration Program and president of USI’s SVA chapter.

Chapter grants are designed to encourage student veterans to think about long-term sustainability of their chapters and develop the best possible strategies and plans. Chapter grants can be used to fund events, conference travel or purchases needed to enhance the experience for student veterans.

In addition, the USI chapter will represent the University during the National Business Plan competition at the 2018 SVA National Conference in San Antonio, Texas on January 5, 2018. USI students will compete with their drafted business plan for the organization.

The USI Student Veterans Association chapter was established in 2013 to advocate for student veterans, current service members and family members. There are currently 185 members that are a part of the SVA from various backgrounds.

ABOUT STUDENT VETERANS OF AMERICA:

SVA is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that is a grassroots coalition of more than 1,400 student veteran-led chapters, representing more than 550,000 veterans in higher education, across the country and around the world. The mission is to provide veterans with the resources and tools to go from successful service member to successful veteran by helping them make the best choices for their education and their future. The organization helps to create the most successful generation of veterans in American history. For more information, visit www.studentveterans.org.