Before and After Death, The Rich are Getting Stingier
Bill Gates & Warren Buffett are countering a trend toward diminished charitable giving by America's wealthiest families.
In a sidebar to a story about Warren Buffett's gift, New York Times reporter David Cay Johnston offers some very disturbing statistics about the decline of charitable giving among the very rich, even while some of the wealthiest families are spending heavily on a campaign to repeal the estate tax.
- As a proportion of income, charity giving of people with incomes over $1 million has declined from 4.1% in 1995 to 3.6% in 2003. it is now nearly the same as the rate for people with incomes under $1 million.
- For gifts at death, the percent going to charity for all estates over $1 million has declined from 8.8% to 7.9% between 1995 and 2004. For estates over $20 million, the decline was from 25.3% to 20.8%.
- The number of estates that leave nothing to charity is rising. For estates over $1 million it rose from 73.8% in 1995 to 78.1% in 2004. For the estates over $20 million, the non-givers rose from 42.4% to 47.7%.
The Times gives us a graphic summarizing the trends.
Reporter Johnston provides some details on the relative stinginess of the Mars Family Foundation (the candy people)(EIN 54-6037592 Form 990) and the Walton Family Foundation (Wal-Mart) (EIN 13-3441466 Form 990). The Mars group gives almost nothing, and while the Walton group is more active, especially in supporting charter schools, it is nowhere near the level of Mr. Gates or Mr. Buffett.
Without directly referencing it, the Times story alludes to data from a report by United for a Fair Economy (EIN 04-3286118 Form 990), "Spending Millions to Save Billions: The Campaign of the Super Wealthy to Kill the Estate Tax." The report claims that directly and through the companies they control and the trade associations they belong to, a handful of wealthy families have spent $490 million since 1998 on lobbying estate tax repeal. Here are the families listed in the report:
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