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In his research on philanthropy, Syracuse University professor Arthur C. Brooks identified four factors that appear to motivate charitable donations: religion, skepticism about government's role in the economy, strong families, and work. Interviewed in the Acton Institute's quarterly Religion and Liberty, he says more about his contention that faith in government's ability to provide for the poor tends to reduce charitable giving.
Ask somebody, "do you think the government should do more to redistribute income?" People who strongly disagree with that give twelve times more money a year to charity than the people who strongly agree with that. You virtually never see differences that are that big. Even when you correct for income and age and education, there are big differences that persist between [those two] groups.
This boils down to a world philosophy. Whose responsibility is it to solve problems? All of us are somewhere between the idea that the government should do it all and that we should do it all. What you find is that for people who believe that it's the responsibility of society writ large [to solve problems], that very belief is suppressing their charitable giving. I think that most people who have those views and get that result and behavior don't realize it. I think people are just not aware that, in fact, your views on government are not a viable substitute for personal checks.
Dr Brooks also discovered that high income is not a necessary precondition for generous donating. In fact, America’s biggest givers are generally the working poor. That finding also shows that tax incentives do not have much impact on charitable giving.
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