We have to pay heed to giving, and as much regard to the people who give, irrespective of what is given, or how much or how little. Every act of giving makes some modicum of difference, and every act has equal value if not equal power. The rich give heftily, often to large nonprofit bodies, and they give in money rather than in goods. The richer still have philanthropy funds, and they leverage their networks to disseminate these funds. They donate with some positive bias to aesthetic, higher education, and healthcare causes; they donate to projects of creative value; and some run their own foundations for grassroot reform, community overhauls, and sustainable development. A median ultra-high net worth individual spends as much as $25 million in aid over a lifetime. The wealthiest people in first-world nations give 1.3% of their incomes back to their communities. Most give annually.

Poorer people contribute a larger percent of their incomes. What we recognize as the middle-class — a class identity so vast that it is risky and cumbersome to make blanket statements about it — make donations to an assortment of enterprises that call for help. This class, within which I accommodate for simplicity’s sake abroad income spectrum, donates between three and five percents of their earnings. This statistic holds in western Europe, in North America, in the UK, in South Asia, in Japan, in Scandinavian nations, across the Commonwealth, and in our benighted subcontinent.

The motley middle-class, then, gives more than the rich do. They give in money and in commodities. They give on impulse rather than in concerted, or planned ways. They give online, and they participate energetically in crowdfunding projects. They give to direct-action organizations rather than to nonprofits with more roundabout fund-use policies. Middle-class givers donate most generously in the aftermath of disaster, and support anti-poverty and community development causes with unvarying consistency. Their donations to education, seven times out of ten, are to projects that focus on educating the less privileged, particularly young children.

Read the full article about the middle class' charitable giving by Malini Bhattacharya from Impact Guru.