According to a report published in November 2021 by Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, Muslim Americans are more generous givers toward charitable causes than the average non-Muslim U.S. adult.

Currently, Muslims comprise just over 1% of the U.S. population. They are primarily a community of color, with African-Americans, Asians, Arabs, and Latinos making up the most significant proportion of this small minority population.

The average giving reported by Muslim respondents to the Lilly survey was $1,810 to faith-based and $1,400 to non-faith-based causes. By comparison, the average giving reported by non-Muslims was $1,138 and $767, respectively.

Following are some highlights from the study:

  1. Muslim philanthropy for both faith-based causes and non-faith-based causes is higher than non-Muslims. Muslim-Americans gave $3,241.96 for charitable giving compared to $1,905.23 for the general population.
  2. The survey findings also suggest that Muslims spend more hours volunteering every year compared to non-Muslims. The volunteering comparison is also interesting, which suggests that generally American people spend 11.8 hours of faith-based volunteering and 13.72 hours for non-faith volunteering whereas Muslim-Americans spend 66.61 hours volunteering for faith-based causes and 45.93 hours volunteering for non-faith-based causes.
  3. Domestic relief equates to 12.70 percent of the total Muslim charity in the U.S.
  4. Civil rights protections for the members of their community is something in which Muslims spend quite generously. If we compare Muslim generosity concerning civil rights, Muslims pay approximately 10.14 percent of their contributions towards civil rights whereas this trend is 4.74 percent in the general public.
  5. Muslims contribute 27.45 percent of their faith-based charity to houses of worship. In comparison, the non-Muslim population offers on average 51.28 percent of their faith-based charity towards the house of worship.
  6. Muslim-Americans also gave a larger share toward COVID relief (14.26 percent) even for non-faith causes than the average population (6.65 percent).
  7. Males donate more than females towards faith-based causes ($3,444 vs. $976 for faith-based reasons, and $2,611 vs. $856 for non-faith causes).
  8. Those 40-49 years of age give the highest average charitable giving.
Originally Published By

IslamiCity