Passionate Steward - 10th Anniversary Edition

Recovering Christian Stewardship from Secular Fundraising 69
Revenue Service’s Tax Code in the United States and Canada’s
Customs & Revenue Tax Act, the Canadian Tax Act (as amended)
also vigorously promotes charitable giving, even if not at the level
of the United States (and certainly less than to Canadian political
parties). However, contrary to conventional wisdom, neither has a
controlling effect on how generosity is played out in the giving
patterns of Americans and Canadians.
Indeed, Tom Cullinan, the successor of Robert Sharpe (founder
of the College of William & Mary’s National Planned Giving
Institute), and himself a highly regarded national leader in the area of
planned giving, always reminds students about the importance of
philanthropic intent. “People have been generous,” says Cullinan,
“with current gifts of income and estate gifts of assets, long before
there were charitable tax deductions and credits. For decades,
American charitable giving has maintained a fairly steady rate at 2%
of the gross domestic product, despite an array of economic and other
difficulties. The main exceptions (the Great Depression, World War
II, and the soaring inflationary period of the 1970s) saw a shift away
from current giving towards estate gifts.” 29
Some leaders in the area of philanthropy, such as Susan
Tressler, who made her name in the environmental lobby, have
appropriately explored the issue of tax incentives, and concluded
that the belief that they are the primary reason for philanthropic
generosity in the United States is largely unwarranted:
Since passage of the U.S. Revenue Act of 1917,
which stipulated tax benefits for charitable giving
for the first time, philanthropy has evolved and
grown in a way unmatched anywhere else in the
world… In its 1993 survey, Independent Sector
also explored the relationship between charitable
giving and tax incentives. The findings showed
29 Tom Cullinan, Lecture given at the College of William and Mary’s National
Planned Giving Institute, Williamsburg Va, June 2001.