Which City is the Most Generous in the U.S.?

The Chronicle of Philanthropy just released a new web interactive data set that shows donation patterns across the United States. The interactive also drills down to the local level by zip code and provides a wealth of data (courtesy of the IRS) about how towns and counties rank nationally in terms of their generosity.

“Comparing levels of giving is always a challenge in part because the cost of living varies greatly across America. To provide a fair analysis, The Chronicle’s rankings show the percentage of their income that households donated from the money they had left after paying their taxes and covering housing, food, and other essential expenses,” said the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Overall Donation Stats

• Over $135.8B was donated to charity across the U.S.
• The media discretionary income was about $54,000
• Donors tend to give about 4.7% of their income to charity.

People Who Make the Least Amount of Money Donate the Most

I was not surprised to see the data show that people who make between $50,000 to $99,000 donate over 6% of their income to charity VS wealthier people who donate a smaller percentage. For example, people who earn over $200,000 only donate 4.2% of their income.  

Note, people who made below $50,000 were not included in this study “because of discrepancies in the data for people with those income levels,” said the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Top Five Most Generous States

1. California: $17.2B
2. New York: $11.3B
3. Texas: $10.7B
4. Florida: $7.4B
5. Illinois: $6B

Top 5 Most Generous Cities

1. Provo, Utah: Median donation $7,059
2. Logan, Utah: Median donation $6,354
3. St. George, Utah: Median donation 5,568
4. Ogden, Utah: Median donation $5,186
5. Idaho Falls, Idaho: Median donation $4,886

Top 5 Most Populous Metropolitan Areas

1. Salt Lake City: $834.5M: Median percent of income given 9%
2. Memphis: $703.8M: Median percent of income given 7.2%
3. Birmingham, Alabama: $771.8M: Median percent of income given 7.1%
4. Nashville: $850.9M: Median percent of income given 6%
5. Atlanta: $3.2B: Median percent of income given 5.9%

How did you your city rank?

Comments

[Ashleigh]

Are the results for this study (in terms of ranking) based on per capita or just straight donation amounts? I hope it's the former or it's not a very accurate picture.

[Urbanwoman]

How did Utah get missed as one of the top 5 states, with 4 cities in the most generous of 5, and Salt Lake City the #1 metro area giving the most? This doesn't make sense.

[Allyson Kapin]

@urbanwoman that is a great question. For that particular stat the study looked at total money raised in the states and Utah ranked #18 where total donations totaled $2.4B

@Ashleigh the study is based on what people in each state reported on their tax returns and who made over $50K a year.