A Tablet article contrasting the philanthropic habits of the wealthy in the US and in the UK

What saves American charities is the high-rollers. In the United States, the rich give away a large proportion of their earnings. Here, despite the fanfare that greets occasions such as the Ark dinner, they are nothing like so generous.

“Compared with the US we’re in the third division,” says Philip Beresford, wealth expert and compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List. “They have a philosophy, do the US super-rich, that having had all the benefits of the ‘land of the free’, of being able to make money unfettered, there’s a consensus and peer pressure that they should give away as much and as fast as possible – they’ve got more than they’ll ever need in the rest of their lives and they can’t spend it in heaven.”

But, for all the paltry giving of most business people in this country, there are some entrepreneurs in Britain who show a remarkable enthusiasm for philanthropy, and it is often inspired by their faith.

Recently, Philip Richards, the co-founder of hedge fund RAB Capital, promised to give away some of his £12.5 million windfall from selling shares in the group. A devout Christian, last year he gave £1.6 million of his £5.4 million pay, to mostly Christian charities. He intends to donate 10 per cent of his income in future. “It’s good Christian teaching that you give away a tithe,” he says.

While some of his more cynical colleagues in the City would balk at Richards’ stance, not so leading Jewish businessmen. They give a far greater percentage of their incomes to charity than their Christian counterparts (although the former tend, first and foremost, to benefit organisations serving fellow Jews – they look after their own in a way that Anglicans and Catholics simply do not).

Well, the generosity of the American rich is probably inspired by tax concerns as well. But the discussion is interesting, anyway.