He invited others to do likewise.ĭon’t we wish our legislators had such sense now? He also said that he was “the poorest man on the floor” but offered to contribute one week of his personal wages to the woman. We have the right, as individuals, to give away as much of our own money as we please in charity but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of the public money.” “I will not go into argument to prove that Congress has no power under the Constitution to appropriate this money as an act of charity. Instead, he reminded the legislators that Congress didn’t have the Constitutional power to appropriate charity.
When Davy Crockett got up to speak, people assumed he would speak in favor. Everyone in the House believed this to be a worthy bill. During that time, a bill came before Congress to appropriate money for the widow of a distinguished naval officer. You probably know Davy Crockett better for his exploits on the frontier and at the Alamo, but he also served a stint in Congress during the Jacksonian years. A tale from Davy Crockett’s time in Congress reminds us that our elected leaders once saw government’s involvement in charity not just as worrisome, but down-right unconstitutional. There was a time when government did not view its role as so intertwined with charity. “We Have No Right to Appropriate a Dollar of the Public Money” Organizations bring in 47.5% of their revenue through selling certain items (think Goodwill), tuition fees (like universities), services (non-profit hospitals) and other fees.įor a nation that bills itself as the most generous on earth, we sure let government do a big chunk of the heavy lifting. Interestingly, and surprising to me, the biggest source of revenue for American non-profits is the non-profits themselves. That total is more than double the revenue from private sources, which make up 13.3% of revenues. This money comes in the form of grants (8% of the total) and contracts and entitlement payments (24.5% of the total), according to a 2015 study by the Urban Institute’s Center for Nonprofits and Philanthropy. And, as the clickbait headlines say, the answer will shock you.Īll told, 32.5% of non-profit revenues come from government sources. How much of overall non-profit revenue comes from government sources versus from people’s private giving to charity?įor a talk I gave the other day, I decided this would be a helpful statistic to look up.
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