Yay for Texas!

Most and least charitable cities rated by the amount of disposable income that is donated to charitable causes.

Most Generous/Percentage

1. Salt Lake City-Ogden, Utah 14.9
2. Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Holland, Michigan 10.0
3. (tie) Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota 8.5
3. (tie) Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, North Carolina 8.5
5. (tie) Memphis, Tennessee 8.4
5. (tie) Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas 8.4
7. Nashville, Tennessee 8.3
8. (tie) San Antonio, Texas 8.1
8. (tie) Houston-Galveston-Brazoria, Texas 8.1
10. (tie) Oklahoma City, Oklahoma 8.0
10. (tie) Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, Virginia 8.0

Least Generous/Percentage

1. Hartford, Connecticut 4.7
2. Providence-Fall River-Warwick, Rhode Island 5.1
3. Boston-Worcester-Lawrence, Massachusetts 5.2
4. Buffalo-Niagara Falls, New York 5.8
5. (tie) New Orleans, Louisiana 5.9
5. (tie) Las Vegas, Nevada 5.9
7. Austin-San Marcos, Texas 6.0
8. (tie) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 6.1
8. (tie) Miami-Ft. Lauderdale, Florida 6.1
8. (tie) Philadelphia-Wilmington, Delaware-Atlantic City, New Jersey 6.1

I heard about this on the radio this morning driving to work. Where are these statistics from? I'm curious where Western MA falls. :)

Some thing called the Chronicle of Philanthropy. cnn.com has more details.

It'a actually just http://philanthropy.com/

The folks on the radio brought up a good point though... this is only counting monetary donations... not food donations/etc.

Well, yes, but they did it via itemized tax returns. So, yes, there are slants in the statistics, but charitable giving is kinda hard to measure.

Yeah, I'm just saying that, at least around here, much of charitable giving is based on helping out in the community and donating canned goods, etc.

There are very few people in the area that just write out a check.. unless they're rich. (and, again, this study is only people earning more than $50,000 a year.)

Two other things.

1. This study is based off of what people report on their tax returns, which is subject to... shall we say.... "interpretation".

2. It only takes into account people who earn more than $50,000 a year.

Well #2 is directly related to #1. Most people can't take itemization. It certainly isn't absolute by any means, but within the statistical limitations of the study, I thought it was pretty interesting.

Oh, yeah, it's definitely interesting. :)

I actually read the Chronicle of Philanthropy here at work.  Let's hear it for non-profits!

Heh...whooo...I live in right in the #1 least generous. I feel so proud. *thunk*