Paul Vandeventer, President and CEO
Community Partners

When some Americans give to charities, they believe they are helping to solve problems and alleviate human suffering.

When some Americans give to charities, they see hope in the eyes of people for whom hope often seems a distant mirage.

When some Americans give to charities, they feel relief from the need to press the U.S. government for lasting solutions to entrenched public problems.

When some Americans give to charities, the U.S. government can take a partial pass on addressing problems that poverty and inequality breed.

When some Americans give to charities, people in communities benefit from an entire gift of $1,000 and the U.S. government foregoes just $350 in tax revenue.

Where else – except when some Americans give to charities – will the U.S. government find another vehicle that can leverage private spending for community services on a nearly 3-to-1 ratio?

Congress at this very moment is reconsidering what it means from a tax perspective when some Americans give to charities.

Charitable giving has always been more than a dollar value proposition, even if we tend to sum it up in figures like last year’s $260 billion in charitable contributions and bequests from individuals. More than money, charitable giving serves as a keen connecting point between citizens and the society they want to see.

That last measure – each American’s vision of the American community they crave – defines the essence of civil society. It’s impossible to measure in dollar terms because the economy of citizenship – the feel of family, community and nation – all defy quantification on spreadsheets or in market graphs and charts.

MacArthur Foundation Fellow and noted economist Nancy Folbre in 2001 explained how the “invisible hand” of competitive markets – if it reaches too far – can undermine the “invisible heart” of love, reciprocity and obligation on which families and communities depend. She titled her book on the matter “The Invisible Heart: Economics and Family Values.”

The debate over keeping or reducing the charitable tax deduction hinges not on some cold political calculation, but rather on our elected leadership’s basic conception and understanding of how Americans think about America. Budget deals understandably involve a lot of horse trading, but compromising what taxpayers treasure is taking it too far.

Americans won’t stop giving if the charitable deduction changes, but some may give up. The charitable tax break is a symbol; a symbol that government understands what citizens – and voters – care about. Without it, they may give up on believing they have a partner in government to care about people in need.

What happens when citizens give up on government?

The same thing that happens to mirages of hope forever evaporating in the distance.

Let’s keep one thing alive in all the Congressional budget wrangling that fills lakes of American hope. Let’s keep the charitable tax deduction as it is so some Americans keep giving to charities.