[AWA] argument 134

According to a poll of 200 charitable organizations, donations of money to nonprofit groups increased by nearly 25 percent last year, though not all charities gained equally. Religious groups gained the most (30 percent), followed by environmental groups (23 percent), whereas educational institutions experienced only a very small increase in donations (3 percent). This poll indicates that more people are willing and able to give money to charities but that funding for education is not a priority for most people. These differences in donation rates must result from the perception that educational institutions are less in need of donations than are other kinds of institutions.

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The author of the passage analyzed a report of donations to charitable organizations, and was concluding that people thought educational institutions needed less donationsthan other kinds of institution. However, the perception made by the author was not reasonable at all. The survey did to the 200 charitable group was ambiguous.

First of all, we know less about the 200 charitable organizations being surveyed. There is the chance that the number of religious groups and environment groups were much more than educational groups, so that the donations to religious and environmentalgroups were much more than the educational groups. It could happen that those educationalorganizations acquiring donations were not in the 200 charitable organizations.

In addition, we don't have the poll of the past few years to compare with. We arenot sure whether the charitable organizations of the poll were the same. It is possible that educational institutions actually gained lots of fundations in the past years, so that even the foundations gained this year was much, the growthof the percentage was not obvious.

It's not likely to show that people were willing and able to give money to charities from the poll for we don't know how much money people spent on other things except forthe charities. After all, before the author made the conclusion that the reason for educational institutions gaining less fundations than other institutions, he should offer more complete details about the poll.


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