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The Generosity Index
Roughly 89% of Americans give to charity – totaling a generous 248 billion charitable dollars, according to Giving USA. However, the generosity index varies widely per state.
A recent study determined by the Catalogue for Philanthropy, published a generosity index which ranks each state according to their annual mean charitable contribution. Each state is ranked in consideration of number of households, IRS data, and cost of living.
New Englanders- regarded as being the most tight-fisted- give on average 1.3% of their annual income to charity compared to the South East and Gulf Coast regions which give 2.2% to charitable causes.
However 82% of New Englanders give, whereas only 65% give of those among the Southeast and Gulf Coast.
The question is:
- Why would charitable giving vary so widely per region?
- Is it socioeconomic background, political profile, or quite possibly a historic tradition of giving?
Is your state charitable or miserly? Find out and please share with us some of your thoughts…!
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10 comments to “The Generosity Index”
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10. May 2009 at 12:02 am :
I think in some state people are more passionately caring and more remorseful to the the less fortunate and all these chatity organization. And also in some state we live in a society where we consumed so many hours working doing business travel overseas or to many different state. Where as they never get the time to realy sit and take or get the real quality time to observed closely on the aspect of all these charity foundation. ( Society Fault)
More so, Some of the big cities and state in our country. I think if a fraction of these people in those state where the percentage is unbalance can take the opportunity and time to just take a close look and participate more to the so many various nonprofit charity foundation.
We would definately see an increase or difference in the percentage regarding donation to charity in other state.
10. May 2009 at 3:18 pm :
The Catalogue for Philanthropy created the Generosity Index simply to report annual IRS data on giving and income—not to measure or compare “generosity” of people, which cannot validly be done. Our method is described here incorrectly; we simply rank states’ Average Adjusted Gross Income, and Average Itemized Charitable Contributions; subtract the latter from the former to yield a plus or minus number for each state; and rank those numbers. We say it is a “crude but telling” indication of the relation of giving to income. Since Itemizers are only 30% of Taxpayers, giving as a percentage of income is invalid because those numbers are from two different groups; that is why we compare ranks to ranks, instead of dollars to dollars. We do not consider costs of living or tax burdens, because those numbers are highly speculative and the former is not state-based.
10. May 2009 at 11:05 pm :
My state is Mississippi is the #1 state in charitable. I think it part of the old south tradition. Louisiana was in there too I believe #7. I think that they are possibly more charitable because the states are poorer and people know they have to give to each other to get by. We have also seen so much devestation from huricanes, floods, ect… That we know what it is to need there fore we know what it means to give. The southern states are also bilble belt states and I think that counts for a big part of the giving here. You are taught to give whenever you can, you are also helped when you needed it. Its like Katrina we were neighbor helping neighbor in the aftermath. It was so long before we got help in and no one expected that kind of devestation but we worked together and helped each other as neighbors. When 9-11 happened I remember we stood in line for hours to give blood. The fire dpts everywhere were out with the black fire boots and everyone was very willing to give and they were filled up. The red cross was out collecting and we did what we could to fill those buckets too. I think that being in disasters it teaches you to give back when its your turn to give. Maybe like for everything there is a season. We its our season we do what needs to be done. Its part of being a Southerner, Which is not to taken from Northerners because I know they give and have seen a lot of disasters themselves. I am very proud to live and have lived in two of the most charitable states in our country. God bless American.
11. May 2009 at 4:02 pm :
I’m new to Microgiving and want to introduce myself. I find the Website a bit
hard to navigate. For instance, I couldn’t find the way to respond on the blog page. I’m not sure this is correct. I am enjoying reading all the stuff and hope everyone keeps up the good work. Annie
12. May 2009 at 3:10 am :
This was a lot to consume. However, the salaries vary form state to state. That might have a lot to do with people having in thier budget or not. I know people make a better wage in the north then the south. Although, it cost more to live in the north then the south.
By doing some research, the biggar the charity, the more the CEO gets paid. Actually, I was surprised on how much they make. I’m sure they could find someone to job for less. They don’t have to be so greedy.
If people on this site, gave one dollar to the same cause; that cause would earn four thousand and seven hundred dollars.( Food for thought )
12. May 2009 at 4:43 am :
I have been trying to come up with ideas for my daughter to go to a program. Our fundraising idea is to have a slient auction, on craft items. We don’t have it put together yet, but when we do, we hope to makes some huge amounts of money! You could also try Domino’s pizza, I hear they offer some sort of huge discount if you are fundraising. I haven’t checked into it, but I hear you can make good money with it!
12. May 2009 at 5:05 pm :
to give charity is about sharing love., not how much money you have to give. just like excepting charity is embracing the love others have for you.
12. May 2009 at 6:34 pm :
Hey Michelle, they didn’t even mention Florida. I wonder what that means. Were either stingy or broke. Probally broke. Florida doesn’t have to pay thier stimulus check back. I know we got it with no stings attached. Here in florida, one at of five are collecting food stamps. The unemployment rate down here is at ten percent. Looks like the road work is picking up down here. As soon as the hurricanes come, everything will pick up here.
13. May 2009 at 1:08 pm :
Shelley –
15. June 2009 at 6:35 pm :
The video was interesting. I have lived a great deal of time in 3 different states. Born and Raised in New Hampshire and my sons were born there. My oldest lived his first 10 years in NH. We moved to Georgia and lived there for 4 years and we have lived in South Carolina for 9 years.
I know right now if I moved back to New Hampshire my family would be financially better off. While NH may not give to charities outside of their state, they certainly do give locally. When I lived in NH before I married my second husband, I had a seriously disabled son and one on the way who we knew would be disabled. I was still walking mostly unaided. I used a cane but wasn’t totally crutch dependent yet. I had the best medical care and I was on medicaid. I had every prescription I needed and I had quality medical equipment. When married to my first husband I had all the help I could possibly need including a rental aid program where my husband had to work for the city a certain number of hours in exchange for vouchers to cover part of the rent.
When my second son was born and I finally escaped that abusive marriage that son had a lung disorder and at the time was legally blind. It would take a bit over a year before my new husband would land a good job, but we had rental help through that same program where you work a few hours for the city and the city paid a portion of your rent, they had work related utility and food programs too. My sons were still well cared for by the state medicaid system as was I. My son had quality eye glasses, every piece of equipment he needed and we had reimbursed transportation to out of town doctors. Both of my boys had quality education and lots of therapy programs that were free. I was not married at that time, but had a live in BF who I did later marry. Though I was eligible for financial aid, his income was good enough so that I did not need any financial aid, I only used the health care system which at that time was excellent and there was nothing I ever had to worry about. Till I moved to Georgia I never knew there was a such thing as poor quality medical care.
Georgia was a shock to me. After my husband went to prison and i was alone, my disability worsened to brace and crutch dependence and I was proved unable to be trained for most employable positions I turned to the state for help. I found very little except SSI and once I was on SSI my medicaid was continued. I lived in a condemnable trailer because I was on a waiting list for HUD and 4 years later when I left SC i was STILL on that waiting list! The section 8 would help me if I moved but the problem was I had no money for the security deposits on the places that were HUD approved and even after HUD covered their portion my part was too high and I wouldn’t be able to make it. I stayed in my unsafe trailer because I could afford it. With 2 people on SSI, my rent low and water was included in the rent I did not qualify for food stamps and unless I went to a church which I never did and never will do…there was no help for food. In NH, there were non-church food programs run by the farmers clubs. Nothing like that when I was in GA and nothing like that in SC either. The education in GA was inadequate but not nearly as bad as when I moved to SC.
South Carolina. I moved and set my boys up with a therapist. On our very first visit the doctor said….You made a big mistake moving to SC with these boys. Amy and I were shocked that a doctor would be so rude, he asked if we were able to move back to GA then let us know they would not get the proper health or education. We explained we just put a DP on a house, it was just set up on the land, we were locked in. From there he tried to find us the help we would need but we found out soon enough the doctor was right. He let us know that he had a special needs child much like our oldest and even he couldn’t find the right kind of help but he’s a professional and he could care for that at home. We could not, he stayed in the area to help people like us. I hated him and liked him. Hated him because as my boys grew worse he did make us feel it was our fault for moving them here in the first place and when I began to worsen he pretty much made our family feel like we should just pack up and move someplace better…..like back to NH. I liked him because he was honest and he did try to help.
There is little local help in my area, I see that we are among the most charitable and NH was among the most miserly….I have to wonder if it’s because in NH neighbors truly did help their neighbors before going beyond the state lines, and in SC they don’t really care about who is inside their boundaries….they help beyond the state lines leaving the poor in SC to beg on the internet while everyone thinks we have all these programs that are available in other states…so they tend to overlook us. Because I have lived in one of the most miserly states and in one of the most giving states…I really think the most miserly state took care of their own people much better, and the most giving state could care less for their own poor unless you belong to a church.