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Newtithing Group
Individual charitable giving would rise nearly 15%, by $27.5 billion annually, if affluent income tax filers in forty-five states and the District of Columbia donated as high a proportion of their asset wealth to charity as do well-off filers in the most generous five states, concludes a landmark six-year study by NewTithing Group, a philanthropic research organization.
Based on IRS data for tax-years 1999-2004, the study suggests that the largest number of affluent tax filers (those with $200,000 or more in adjusted gross income) reside in California and hold an estimated $1.04 trillion in aggregate investment assets, followed by affluent filers in New York ($794 billion), Florida ($533 billion), Texas ($465 billion), and Illinois ($331 billion).
Measuring charitable donations relative to investment assets provides a meaningful gauge of generosity amongst the affluent, whose investment assets usually exceed their income.
None of the wealthiest ten states, measured by the aggregate assets of affluent filers, rank within the top quarter of U.S. states for generosity adjusted for cost-of-living.
Conversely, none of the most charitable ten states, those with wealthy filers donating the highest proportion of investment asset wealth to charity, according to the findings, rank within the top quarter for aggregate wealth.
According to the analysis, 80% of the most generous five states rank in the bottom half of the nation for per capita spending.
Utah ranks 1st in generosity and 48th in per capita spending.
Minnesota ranks 4th in generosity and 50th in per capita spending.
Georgia ranks 5th in generosity and 42nd in per capita spending.
Wyoming ranks high in both generosity (6th) and per capita spending (8th).
Posted on October 11, 2006 10:45 AM
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