Yo, make it happen...BADDA-BING!
Posted on 04/07/2005 1:48:06 PM PDT by Coleus
The Catalogue for Philanthropy has given even more ammunition to those who like to take cheap shots at New Jersey - in this case, proof that we're cheap.
While the Garden State ranks second in the nation according to earned income, it ranked only 47th in charitable donations, according to the catalogue's annual Generosity Index, which ranks states according to charitable donations. New Jersey residents averaged $3,022 in charitable gifts in 2002, the latest year for which figures are available, while the national average was $3,455. Mississippi, the poorest state in the country, ranked first, averaging charitable donations of $4,484.
"We're not saying that people are cheap," said Marty Cohn, spokesman for the catalogue, which is a Boston-based organization that promotes charitable giving. "All that we're saying is that, by comparing one state to another, you get a feeling of where you stand in terms of generosity and where you could stand to do better."
Still, many local fund-raising experts challenged New Jersey's low ranking.
"I actually don't think it's true," said Hans Dekker, president of the Community Foundation, a Morristown nonprofit that links potential donors to nonprofits. "My gut tells me we're philanthropic. ... There are 25,000 nonprofits in the state, and that number has doubled in the past 10 years. I take that as evidence that people are very charitable."
Rounding out the index's top five givers were, in descending order, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Alabama. Holding down the bottom with New Jersey were Wisconsin, in 46th place, and Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, in 48th through 50th.
The states in which individuals contributed higher percentages of their earned income ranked highest on the list. The report is based on information from 2002 individual income tax returns. The catalogue defines charity the same way the Internal Revenue Service does, which includes giving to religious groups, churches and other organizations.
It is interesting that the top 25 states were "red" and supported President Bush in the 2004 presidential election; the lowest-ranking states were "blue" and went for John Kerry.
One theory describing the giving trends is that religious organizations in traditionally red, Bible Belt states promote a stronger personal obligation toward charity than do similar institutions in blue states. And that, say experts, has a profound effect on lifelong giving trends.
"People learn how to give based on their religion," said David Bixel, president of Semple Bixel Associates Inc., a Nutley-based fund-raising consulting firm. "One of the major religions in this region is Roman Catholicism and, up until 20 years ago, the parishes were run on a bingo system, meaning that people didn't have to learn to give to support the church; they had to learn to play games.
"Compare that with the Baptists in South Carolina. What Baptists learn is they have a direct contributing responsibility to their congregation and they tithe to do so. As those churchgoers go into other charities, such as social services, mental health, hospitals, whatever, that mentality follows."
Most Southern churches condition their congregations to both directly approach and be directly approached for charity, which makes fund-raising efforts for non-church charities easier and more successful. The face-to-face approach is the most effective fund-raising technique, Bixel said.
"There is a greater understanding in the South of charity," Bixel said.
In the Northeast, where that mentality hasn't been as cultivated, Bixel said, many charities will host dinner banquets or golf tournaments to raise funds - a less effective and more expensive way to raise money.
Parishioners in the Northeast also learn charity in church, said Timothy Potter, development director for the Paterson Diocese. But, he said, "I get the sense that the concept of tithing and stewardship is more prevalent in the South and Midwest than in the North." He noted that tithing is not mandated in all diocese churches. Additionally, the priest sex-abuse scandals of the past three years hurt the Roman Catholic Church's fund-raising efforts, he said, adding that giving improved in 2004.
"One thing I've found is that people will give to the vision of the church," said Associate Pastor Jason Tourville of Calvary Temple in Wayne, an Assemblies of God congregation. "After the tsunami, thousands and thousands of dollars were raised that Sunday. Whenever people see the real need and the vision behind it, they are willing to support that vision."
But he added, "In our fast-paced society today, especially in the Northeast, there's less of a connection to community. At times we feel disconnected from the community at large due to our fast-paced society."
And that connection, said Dekker of the Community Foundation, plays a large role in people's attitudes toward giving. Another explanation he offered for the regional giving divide is that there's more need in poorer states (many of which are southern) and, therefore, a larger sense of personal responsibility for social welfare.
"In the South, there's less of a public infrastructure, so people will do things through charity that we're doing through property taxes," explained Dekker, who worked with Louisiana nonprofits for 10 years before coming to New Jersey 1-1/2 years ago.
In the Northeast, social policy is more liberal and people's expectations of local government are higher, said Bixel. "We believe that poor people ought to have something, but ... that the government is the instrument of good will," he said. When there is a problem, "We'll say, 'Let's form an organization, let's get a government grant to make sure it gets done.'"
Additionally, the numbers may be skewed against New Jerseyans because all forms of giving are not reported in individual tax returns, Dekker said. Many residents set up family foundations and donate to philanthropic causes via the foundation. Those donations are recorded on different tax forms and therefore were omitted from the Generosity Index.
Foundation giving
Twenty-seven percent of all charitable giving in the state was made through foundations in 2001, according to the New Jersey Gives report issued by the Council of New Jersey Grantmakers. There are more than 1,900 family foundations in the state with assets of $10,000 or greater, and the state's leading foundations gave away more than $732 million to charitable causes, the report said.
Additionally, the New York-based Foundation Center recently reported that foundation giving is on the upswing after two years of declining giving nationwide.
"I think it might be a matter of something being missed," said Maria Semple, president of the Bridgewater-based consulting firm The Prospect Finder. "Lots of families in New Jersey have foundations, especially in the higher income level."
Additionally, corporate giving programs that encourage employees to make donations through their jobs were not included in the index's computations, Semple said. Many companies match their employees' contributions and those matching donations were excluded from the final tally of New Jersey giving. The absence of these two large categories skewed the state's ranking, she said.
But catalogue spokesman Marty Cohn defended the ranking and methodology of the report.
"The truth is, of the philanthropic pie, roughly 80 percent comes from individuals, 10 percent from foundations and 5 percent comes from corporations," he said. "That's why we have utilized individual charitable giving as a reflection of generosity.
"One of the things that it shows is that there's still some room for giving."
Some states more generous than others
According to Marty Cohn, spokesman for the Catalogue for Philanthropy, Southern Baptists and the Catholic Church receive a majority of the religious contributions in the country. Based on the Generosity Index rankings (in parentheses), people in states where Southern Baptists have a stronghold generally give at a higher rate than those in states where Catholicism is dominant.
Southern Baptists rule religious charitable giving in the following states: Arkansas (2), Oklahoma (3), Louisiana (4), Alabama (5), Tennessee (6) South Carolina (9), Texas (12), North Carolina (16), Florida (18), Georgia (19), Kentucky (20) and Missouri (22).
The Catholic Church reigns in New Jersey (47), New York (26), Connecticut (44), Maine (32), Massachusetts (49), New Hampshire (50), Rhode Island (48), Alaska (24), Colorado (43), Montana (21), New Mexico* (23) and Wisconsin (46).
*Voted for Bush in 2004.
ping
I gave to the FReepathon!
High NJ taxes hurt charities.
Well, at least we rank first in donations to our local and state government.
I could have told you all of that without any actual statistics or a study needed! Many individuals in blue states like to announce their superiority and whine about not being able to dominate and control the nation all the time. That attitude often goes hand in hand with an all talk but no action type of life.
If you factor out donations to churches, I wonder how the numbers shake out.
As do many people in Red States. Your point?
Don't you remember that after the election the press tried to make out those in the Red States as dumb Hicks, Hillbillies, farm boys, lower less-educated people that didn't know what they were doing. They had an air of superiority about them where they made it out to be that the "reds" were too dumb to know why they should have voted for Kerry and didn't understand the issues.
I'm from the south and cannot tell you how many times I've heard the entire south and midwest mocked for being uneducated or too religious. But many religious people are willing to give even when they don't have much. Obviously what I said doesn't apply to everyone, as there are plenty of people in the "red states" who don't give and many in the "blue states" who do. Yet some of the poorest red states have the higher giving-per-person average percentage in charitable giving of any kind (as defined by the IRS.)
What does THAT mean? Sounds suspicious to me. Regardless, didn't they think through their study methodology prior to doing it?
Yo, make it happen...BADDA-BING!
We donate through the Federal government. Last time I checked, we get back sixty-nine cents for every buck we send in...and, as I recall, this was the lowest return of any state. Being a state of Socialists, at least we walk the walk.
Not quite fair: unless NJ doesn't do what states from California to Kansas do, and allow Federal itemized deductions (with the exception of state income tax and maybe one or two other state or local taxes) to be applied in computing taxable income, high taxes should encourage charity.
The real problem is that liberals think the government should do what charities do using money taken from other people.
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