I would argue that, nowadays, many young people expect the government to take care of necessary social work, making charity less relevant. Here's my theory, which admittedly has no data to back it up:<p>Older people, who skew Republican, believe in small government, and believe in private charity. (They're also more religious, and remember that a lot of charity is really donating to your church.)<p>Whereas younger people (especially techies), who skew Democrat, tend to believe more in active government, and believe that democratic participation will ultimately lead to effective social use of their tax dollars.<p>And it's not an unreasonable position, necessarily. If you support higher taxes and more political activism, there are many good arguments as to how government policy is a vastly better conduit for doing social good, than private charity.