David P. King: Faith & Philanthropy

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In this episode we discuss the links between religion, faith and giving with David P. King, Karen Lake Buttrey Director of the Lake Institute on Faith & Giving and Associate Professor of Philanthropic Studies at the Lilly Family School on Philanthropy at Indiana University- Purdue University, Indiana. Including:

• How important a part does faith play in motivating and shaping approaches to giving in the modern world?
• What role has it played historically?
• When it comes to faith as a factor in philanthropy, what is most important:
  • Observance of specific religious requirements to give (e.g. tithing, Tzedakah, Zakat)?
  • Broader religious teachings on ethics & responsibility?
  • Attendance at places of worship?
  • A sense of shared religious identity?
• How do religious teachings on the nature of poverty and justice affect the likelihood of their followers giving and the ways in which they give?
• Are we seeing a decline in faith in places like the UK and the US, or simply a shift away from organised, collective religion to more informal, individual spirituality? What impact might this have on giving?
• Are places of worship important in maintaining cultures of giving?
• To what extent is this because of their religious nature and to what extent is it simply because they are community buildings that bring people together, or act as a location for grassroots/informal activity?
• At a time when secular community spaces are becoming fewer, do places of worship have an increasingly important role to play as community anchors? Are they  embracing this role, and how?
• How much of the giving that goes towards religion in the US is for the maintenance of religious institutions themselves, and how much gets passed on into wider charitable activities?
• What role has faith (especially missionary faith) played in shaping the field of international development and humanitarian aid?
• Does faith still play an important role today? (E.g. given that quite a few major INGOs have religious roots, and are ostensibly still religious orgs)
• Does the academic study of philanthropy and civil society need to do more in terms of taking into account the role of faith groups?
• What challenges does this pose? (i.e. Different literatures/concepts, specialist knowledge of the structures of religious orgs required etc?).

Related Links:

• The Lake Institute on Faith and Giving
• David's profile page at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUI
• David's 2017 Conversation article "Why Faith Inspires People to Give"
• David's blog for Lilly Family School of Philanthropy "Giving 2021: Pandemic lessons and the future of religious giving"
• David's HistPhil article, "Religion’s Role in International Relief and Development: World Vision and the Age of Evangelical Humanitarianism".
• Philanthropisms podcast episode with David's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy colleague Tyrone McKinley Freeman