摘 要

当今美国的慈善事业发展良好，是世界慈善事业的领头羊。众所周知，美国的经济发展造就了很多富豪，他们积累的巨额财富为他们从事慈善事业打下了坚实的经济基础。这些富豪以及其他一些捐赠者都为美国的慈善事业做出了很大贡献。为了更好地了解美国政府和慈善基金会的良性运作，了解他们如何通过各种法律和法规鼓励富豪们以及社会各界进行慈善捐助，有必要从不同的角度对美国的慈善文化进行研究，包括美国慈善的历史根源、美国的法律对慈善事业的作用以及美国慈善事业的发展等等，以便从中获益。本文主要从三个方面分析美国的慈善文化，首先介绍美国慈善文化的根源以及其产生的历史、宗教、文化和社会背景；其次是美国慈善文化的具体发展状况及影响其发展的原因和政府的相关措施及作用；最后论述美国慈善文化对其他国家慈善事业的推动和产生的影响。

关键词：美国慈善文化；背景；发展；影响
 
Abstract

Today, American charity is developing very well, and it has already become the leader of the world. As we know, the development of American economy has created many rich people whose vast wealth has laid solid foundations for them to devote to the charity. Both these wealthy people and small donators have made great contributions to American charity. In order to have a better understanding of the good operations of the American government and the charitable foundations and to know how they encourage rich people and the public to do charitable donations by using various kinds of laws and rules, it is necessary for us to study American charity culture from different perspectives. This includes the historical root of American charity, the effect on charity of American laws and the development of American charity. This essay aims to study American charity in three aspects: first, the origin and the historical, religious, cultural and social backgrounds of American charity; second, the specific development and the factors that affect it and the government measures; last, how American charity promotes and affects other countries’ charities.

Keywords: American charity culture; background; development; influences

Chapter 1 Introduction
Charity is an ancient and general thought or behavior in the world. It is held by all the human beings. It is common for people to show sympathies to weak men and help people overcome difficulties. The action, which puts these into practice, is called doing the good. Doing charity has always been regarded as a virtue of all times. In the ancient Egypt, long before the birth of Christ, the ruler of Ptolemaic Dynasty had set foundation to operate the famous Alexandria museum and library. [1] In addition, there are many records of charity in Chinese classic documents, such as charity means kindness and goodness and show care and sympathy for people. In other words, charity is an activity, which people do good things with the awareness of kindness and goodness. Therefore, charity is the state of mind that how people treat each other.