A researcher is sounding the alarm after new data shows a troubling decline in evangelical giving to churches and charities more generally.

“The takeaway is that there has been a change over the last three years in terms of the generosity of the evangelical community, both toward church and toward nonprofit organizations or charities,” Mark Dreistadt said. “We’ve seen a drop in giving across the board.”

Infinity Concepts and Grey Matter Research found the “proportion of evangelicals giving to church fell 13 percentage points from 2021, constituting a 17% decrease in giving,” according to a press release.

While 61% of evangelicals gave to their local church in the 12 months before the study, this was down from the previous timeframe, when 74% of evangelicals had done the same. The same happened with giving to outside ministries or organizations, which decreased from 58% in 2021 to 50% in 2024.

Dreistadt said these changes are “concerning” for churches and ministries:

“It’s something that is of concern, certainly, for every church and every nonprofit organization that depends on donor dollars,” he said. “This becomes a very critical thing because … in some cases, the giving is down as much as 15%. And if you’re working with a tight budget, a 15% loss of revenue can be critical.”

Dreistadt also mentioned another important indicator: the amount of money people give.

“They are [also] giving at a lower level,” he said. “So, there are fewer people who are giving less. … We hear in the in in in in churches, we hear about, talk about tithing and how important it is to tithe. But across the evangelical community, there are so few people who actually are; 2.8% is what people typically are giving out of their income.”

Dreistadt also spoke about some of the undeniable factors likely contributing to these issues, including economic struggles, inflation, and people generally having fewer dollars to spend as a result.

“There may be some situations where people may want to give, but they have to pay their rent, and they can’t do both,” he said. “So, you have some of that that may be going on.”

But Dreistadt also pointed to a “deeper concern” reflected in some of the research he’s done — something he referred to as “a secularization of the church” and of the evangelical community.

Under this dynamic, he said spiritual practices are becoming “less and less significant to a greater number of people within that community.” Ultimately, it’s spiritual engagement that drives everything else in the faith space.

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“When we find people who are truly spiritually engaged — they read their Bible, they’re in a home group or a study group, they go to church regularly, they regularly pray — [for] those folks the giving has stayed much closer to the norm,” he said. “So, I do think that there’s a deeper spiritual problem driving some of this as well.”

Interestingly, the American Bible Society recently came to similar conclusions, explaining that practicing believers give more to churches and charities alike.

“People who consistently read the Bible and live by its teachings are more likely to give to charity,” Dr. John Farquhar Plake, chief innovation officer and editor-in-chief of the American Bible Society’s “State of the Bible” series said in a statement. “Our data shows that they also give far more — not only to their churches, but also to religious and non-religious charities. At a national level, we could say that Scripture Engaged people form a massive engine of generosity and philanthropy.”

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Overall, 94% of Scripture Engaged Americans gave to charity. Read more here.

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