Have you ever wondered how generous your hometown is? Now, you can find out.
A new report released by The Chronicle of Philanthropy compiles charitable giving data from the Internal Revenue Service. While the data is incomplete, it supposedly accounts for approximately 63% of the estimated $214-billion that Americans gave away in 2008. Using a model that measures giving as a percentage of discretionary income (defined as income after tax and essential expenses such as housing and food), the study ranks cities and towns, counties and states and even breaks the data out demographically.
The Chronicle went a step further and provides handy maps so you can drill down to see Total Contributions, by households or as a percentage of income.
So, it was great to see that my home county of Essex, Massachusetts ranked 96th out of 3,115 counties measured. Or that the prime age group for giving in Massachusetts is 45-64 year-olds.
