The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently published its annual “How America Gives” special report. It includes information about the most charitable large cities (only the 50 largest metropolitan areas were considered) in the United States based on how much people within the city give to charitable causes. Within this list:
- only 2 cities had giving rates of 5% or greater,
- 7 of the top 10 cities had higher giving rates in 2012 than in 2006, and
- the bottom half of the cities featured giving rates between 1.9% and 2.8%.
So What?
I don’t know what factors help each of the top rated cities reach this status. I do however know that Salt Lake City is home to the headquarters of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and has a population that is roughly 50% comprised of followers of this tradition. I lived in the Dallas-Fort Worth area for many years. Dallas (and also the surrounding metro area) live up to the billing as the home of the most “megachurches, megaseminaries, and mega-Christian activity than any other American city.” So, it would appear that religion may have a positive influence on giving. Nonetheless, the giving rates even for the most generous large cities are relatively low.
- How well does your city or local area fare when compared to these top large cities (use this interactive map to find your metro area, county or zip code to see what the latest giving rate was)?
- What factors do you think differentiate the most generous large cities from the least generous ones?
- How does your personal rate of charitable giving compare to your area’s rate of charitable giving?