Greed is Greed

Residents of communities with a higher-than-average standard of living, little poverty, and low crime give a smaller portion of their income to charity than those in less well-off communities, the Chronicle of Philanthropy reports.

In an analysis of giving behavior as measured against quality-of-life indicators in 2,670 counties across the United States, the Chronicle found an inverse relationship between a community's relative affluence and its charitable giving. Based on data from the How America Gives study, which shows share of income given by state, metropolitan area, county, and ZIP code in 2012, and the Opportunity Index, which scores socioeconomic well-being by county, the analysis found that counties in New England tend to have either moderate or high standards of living and low giving ratios, while those in Florida, the mid-Atlantic region, the Upper Midwest, and the West Coast have moderate standards of living and low giving ratios and counties in the Southeast tend to have either low or moderate standards of living and moderate giving ratios.

Notable among the outliers were counties in Utah and the southeast corner of Idaho, where both standards of living and giving ratios are moderate, with the exception of a few counties with low socioeconomic well-being and high giving ratios. Previous studies have found that people who are religious tend to give more, and both Utah and the Southeast have some of the highest rates of church attendance in the country.

The Chronicle notes that the giving ratios it calculated are based on data from taxpayers who itemize their charitable deductions, representing about 80 percent of all U.S. giving, but leave out giving by individuals who don't itemize, give more than the limit eligible for a deduction, or have wealth but no reportable income. In addition, because the giving ratio is calculated as a percentage of residents' income, the dollar amounts donated in high-income areas with lower giving ratios are often larger than those in low-income areas with higher giving ratios.

Nevertheless, the inverse relationship between socioeconomic opportunity and giving is "a compelling, counterintuitive finding" which pushes against assumptions that "places with higher scores would have higher rates of giving," said Russell Krumnow, managing director of Opportunity Nation, one of the nonprofits behind the Opportunity Index. People with lower incomes may be more willing to give, he added, because they identify more closely with the challenges faced by others in their communities. And that's a shame, because we "really need everyone's hands in this work…the work of expanding opportunity is everyone's."

Rebecca Koenig. "A Mismatch Between Need and Affluence." Chronicle of Philanthropy 07/09/2015.

Subjects: philanthropy / voluntarism

People: russell krumnow

Organization: chronicle of philanthropy

Location: National