I donate, but not much. Not as a % of our salaries.
But part of that is safety nets and such.
As someone else pointed out, I pay a LOT of taxes. I consider my taxes to be charity.
I look at friends, and parents of the kids in my school, and people in the neighborhood.
My taxes pay for their section 8 housing, their free lunches, their Medical coverage.
Everything that our taxes pay for - all those safety nets.
But also, I am saving for my kids to go to college, and I'm paying off a house, and I'm trying to have FU money.
So when the YMCA hits me up for money, I donate. Because I get a lot out of the Y. But it's like $50.
When friends do a walk or a run for something, I donate. Again, it's $50.
For the school - the school gets more money, more than $1000.
But I don't give much more than that, because, what about the other parents? I don't want to judge, but I had a friend who didn't donate a single dime one year because they couldn't afford it, yet they ate out 3x a week and spent $15k on a vacation to Australia.
I also volunteer a ton of time to the school (I'm on the PTA board).
In the past I've made quilts for charity and done breast cancer walks, etc. I also donate to the food bank.
I don't feel a need to tithe a particular % to charity. But I was raised Catholic, so donating was a thing, but not "tithing a %". And now I'm an atheist (probably always was, but didn't admit it until 30.)
It's interesting that studies show that people who make less donate more. I think part of that is need - they have needed help, and understand the need for help. I understand that.
I also understand though why it can sometimes taper off for the middle class. Because I increased my work hours last year and fully 62% of my additional earnings were taxed - part of that was just increased taxes and being in a higher bracket (so federal, state, FICA, etc.), and part of that was losing deductions and credits. The end result is that I took home 38 cents on the dollar.