America is in the middle of the largest and fastest transformation of religion in the country’s history. That’s the conclusion of experts who found that some 40 million people — 16 percent of the country’s adult population — have left Christianity alone in the past 25 years. “This is not a gradual shift; it is a jolting one,” the researchers declare in the recent book The Great Dechurching.
The decline in religiosity is not felt across all faiths and parts of the country. Nondenominational churches are growing as well as Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim congregations. But mainline Protestant and Catholic churches — a bulkwark of religion in America — are in acute decline.
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America is in the middle of the largest and fastest transformation of religion in the country’s history. That’s the conclusion of experts who found that some 40 million people — 16 percent of the country’s adult population — have left Christianity in the past 25 years alone. “This is not a gradual shift; it is a jolting one,” the researchers declare in the recent book The Great Dechurching.
The decline in religiosity is not felt across all faiths and parts of the country. Nondenominational churches are growing as well as Buddhist, Hindu, and Muslim congregations. But mainline Protestant and Catholic churches — a bulwark of religion in America — are in acute decline.
This societal change obviously touches on charitable giving, though not always in expected ways. Here are a few answers to the question: What happens to giving when religion fades?
1. Religion plays a much less important role than it once did. In the early to mid-1980s, contributions to congregations and religious organizations made up 58 percent of all donations — a sign of the prevalence of faith in American households and its dominance in charitable giving. Yet in the five years ending in 2022, that share had dropped to 29 percent. Religion remains the most popular cause for charitable donors but to a much lesser degree.
2. The number of donors to churches is eroding quickly. Roughly one out of six Catholic and Protestant donors stopped giving to church since the pandemic began, according to an analysis by the Center for Church Management at Villanova University. Worst-case scenario projections show the Catholic church alone could lose as much as 47 percent of its donors from 2012 to 2032.
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3. Even as their number of supporters dwindles, many denominations and religious groups report relative strength in revenue. “We are not losing money at anywhere near the rate that we are losing people,” said the Rev. Molly James, a top official in the Episcopal church, at a June meeting of denominational leaders.
Experts explain this seeming contradiction this way: Those leaving the church are often loosely affiliated, attending worship infrequently, eschewing membership, and giving sporadically and in small amounts. Those who remain are the most committed and are most likely to increase their gifts to help the institution navigate any trouble.
Nationally, donations to religion have actually increased 10 percent since 2000 even when adjusted for inflation, according to “Giving USA,” the annual estimate of charitable giving in the United States. Still, that growth rate lags well behind that of all charitable giving, which climbed 28 percent in that time. And growth may have stalled: Last year, contributions fell to their lowest level since 2014.
4. Philanthropy has grown wary about giving to groups with ties to religion. As private foundations professionalized over the 20th century, they turned to faith-based groups less frequently, according to philanthropy historians. America’s increasing secularization in the 21st century has added even more distance to that relationship.
Today, faith-based groups report even animosity toward faith-based groups from institutional donors. Tenets of religion are at play in the increasingly heated culture wars over such issues as abortion and gender identity, which can make faith-based groups seem like a lightning rod. For some foundations, “it’s just plain easier to avoid those organizations that may cause blowback on one side or the other,” says David King, who leads the Lake Institute on Faith and Giving at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
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5. Religiosity’s decline has implications for secular nonprofits. Participation in organized religion is a key predictor of charitable giving of all kinds, according to research. Sixty-two percent of households in which members regularly attend worship give to charities of all kinds. That compares with 46 percent of households with no religious affiliation, according to research by the Giving USA Foundation and the Lilly School.
“I don’t think anyplace cultivates the habit of being a generous giver better than churches,” says Matt Manion, director of Villanova’s Center for Church Management. “I think the ripple effect through the whole [nonprofit] sector is going to be pretty scary.”
Jeff Taylor, The Winchester Star, AP
6. At least a few philanthropies are concluding that supporting houses of worship can further their secular goals. The William Penn Foundation, a Philadelphia-based regional grant maker, doesn’t have a religion portfolio, but it has come to see churches as neighborhood mainstays similar to the parks, libraries, and recreation centers it funds. It has made a three-year, $1.5 million grant to the Philadelphia Fund for Black Sacred Places to refashion parts of historic churches for community purposes.
“The transitioning of churches from communal worship spaces to places of community building seems highly consistent to their original purpose,” says Shawn McCaney, the foundation’s executive director.
7. Churches and faith-based groups are adapting. Congregations have been slow to embrace online giving, but they were forced to change when they moved to virtual worship services during the pandemic. Now more than two-thirds of churches report using online giving — more than double the number from 2015, according to the Hartford Institute for Religious Research.
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Per capita annual giving in churches that lean heavily on online giving is almost $2,400, about $600 more than at churches that haven’t adopted digital donations, according to the institute’s study.
Manion of Villanova’s Center for Church Management reports a large spike in the number of Catholic foundations. He says church leaders are recognizing the need for more sophisticated fundraising and donor stewardship than clergy can do. Foundations also establish funds outside of the church and out of reach of lawsuits.
“Donors know that their money can continue to go to things like the charitable outreach of the church and not have their money redirected to provide justice to victims of sexual abuse,” Manion says.
The national office of Catholic Charities also has shifted its fundraising approach. It largely raises money for disaster relief and once saw the majority of its funding come from parish offering collections. In recent years, however, individual giving to the organization has become the largest share of its fundraising revenue.
“We’ve kind of hit reset,” says Anthony Sciacca, executive vice president for development. The organization has scaled back direct-mail efforts and focuses more on online giving and individual donors, with a corresponding increase in the average gift size.
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“I think parishes that have remained strong have also made those adjustments,” Sciacca says.
