News >

State scores low in generosity listing
It's 46th in gap between donations, income

By MARIE ROHDE / mrohde@journalsentinel.com
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Posted: Dec. 4, 2005

Wisconsinites are among the most tightfisted charitable givers in the country, according to a new national report.

"I'd prefer to say that you have a greater opportunity to increase your giving rather than say that you're cheap," said George McCully, president of the Catalogue for Philanthropy, which has compiled a state- by-state "generosity index" each year for the past decade.

The index is based on both the average adjusted gross income for each state and the value of itemized charitable donations reported to the Internal Revenue Service based on the latest available tax returns, those filed for 2003. In effect, the index measures the percentage of income that is given to charity.

On that basis, some of the poorest states are among the most generous, a modern-day version of the Bible's story of the widow's mite. In Mississippi, a state where tax returns show an average adjusted gross income of only $34,720, the itemized charitable deductions averaged $4,770, or more than 13.7% of the income figure.

By contrast, Wisconsin's average adjusted gross income was $45,188 and giving amounted to $2,659, a little less than 5.9% of the income.

Wisconsin's low ranking in the study puzzles some of those familiar with local charities.

Jamey Shiels, a spokesman for the Salvation Army, said many of the donations to his organization would not be noted in the study because most of it comes from small donations to the bell ringers in shopping centers during the holidays or other spur of the moment gifts.

Shiels added that the bell ringers' goals have been reached for the past two years. While donations this year are somewhat behind, he said he was optimistic that the $620,000 goal for 2005 would be reached.

Cathi Mohan, a spokeswoman for the United Way of Greater Milwaukee, said donations to her agency have grown 32% since 1999, from $28 million to $37 million in 2004, which she characterized as very strong compared with similarly-sized communities. She also noted that some local organizations, such as the United Performing Arts Fund, are considered among the strongest of their kind in the country. She believes that the state's relatively high poverty rate is skewing the figures.

"If you're taking the average income, you may have more people who are living in poverty and not able to give," Mohan said. "If there is room for improvement, then that makes our job more important, because we focus on breaking the cycle of poverty."

McCully, based in Boston, said he has long been perplexed by relatively affluent states such as Wisconsin and Colorado, ranked fifth and eighth from the bottom, respectively. But studies on giving practices done by others give some clues, he said.

"Nationwide, generosity is not related to income," said McCully, who has produced his index annually for each of the past 10 years. "Giving is influenced by culture, region and religions."

The Bible Belt states, where church leaders encourage tithing, are ranked among the most generous, even though those states are among those with the lowest incomes, McCully said.

States such as Wisconsin, where more than half of those who are affiliated with religious institutions say they are Catholic, tend to be at the bottom of the generosity list, he said.

Charles Zech has done annual polls on charitable giving that include religion variables. He is a professor of economics at Villanova University, a Catholic institution near Philadelphia.

"Anyone who has ever studied this has found that Catholics give about half of what those from other religious faiths give," Zech said. "People are stunned when I say this in lectures, but Catholics give between 1.1% and 1.2%, while others give 2.2% to 2.4%."

Zech said while those figures indicated giving to the donor's church, the same gap was found in giving to disaster relief, schools or other causes.

Why Catholics give less has been the subject of considerable study, he said. He's concluded that there are three factors that come into play: Catholics don't feel they have an influence in decision making in their churches; there's a lack of transparency and accountability on how their money is being spent; and Catholics learn stewardship in ways different from Protestants.

"Protestants have been taught to develop a need to give because they are blessed," Zech said. "Catholics are told to give because there is a need for their contributions."

Debra Lethlean, director of the Catholic Stewardship Appeal for the Milwaukee Archdiocese, said she has found area Catholics to be generous. She quoted Archbishop Timothy Dolan's recent comments in the Catholic Herald that noted that local Catholics had given more than $1.5 million to the tsunami relief efforts, nearly $1 million to the recent hurricane relief efforts and a record $7.6 million to the last Archbishop's Stewardship Campaign. Those donations came on top of support for local parishes, schools and other causes, such as Catholic missions.

Kathleen Hohl, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, added that the church encourages Catholics to do more than write a check.

"We say give of your time, talent and treasure," she said. "We encourage sharing all of our blessings."

Churches and other religious institutions received 35.5% of the philanthropic pie in 2004, said McCully. Education was in second place with 13.6% of the donations and health at 8.8%.

Overall, charitable giving is up in the U.S., according to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a newspaper that tracks philanthropy and charitable organizations. The publication reported that America's 400 largest charities saw an 11.6% increase in donations in 2004, bringing the amount raised in this country to $248.5 billion.

That's great, said McCully, but not directly related to generosity.

"Yes, it's true that we are the most generous nation in the world," he said. "We are also the wealthiest. The question that should be asked is whether we can afford to give more than 2% of our wealth. That is the average of what we are giving."

Michael Murphy, a pastor at Elmbrook Church in Brookfield, agreed.

"We're a very generous nation," he said, "but the percentage of what we're giving today is less generous than it was during the Depression."

For more information on the Catalogue for Philanthropy's generosity index, visit www.catalogueforphilanthropy.org