Giving

"It's purple on the map!"

The Chronicle of Philanthropy today released "How America Gives," its report on charitable giving in the United States. Fascinating stuff.

Although some of the content is behind a pay-wall, what's freely available online is more than enough to keep you busy. The report is searchable by state, county, zip code, city, income level and so on. 

For example, according to the report* residents of my little county donated $2,000,000 to charity in 2008 (most recent data available). That represented 8.8% of the median discretionary income of $39,505. This is significantly more than the national average of 4.7% of the much larger median national discretionary income of $54,783. 

As a state, Mississippi ranks only behind Utah in giving. But what would you expect from a bunch of fat lazy folk who aren't even smart enough to hold onto their own money?

Discretionary income ≥ $200,000, giving = 3.8%

*The methods section is also available online. It has a few caveats about the way the data were collected and analyzed. E.g., Data are from 2008 tax returns but only those returns with itemized deductions.