Community Chat

[sunshine45]

just saw this list and was pleasantly surprised that MARYLAND is at number 2 of the most charitable states for 2017! how does your state rank? to determine the most generous states, WalletHub compared them based on 14 key metrics including volunteer rates, the percentage of taxpayers who donated to charity, and the percentage of sheltered homeless.

Tis the season for giving. And the latest World Giving Index shows that Americans are among the world’s most generous people, ranking No. 5 out of 140 countries. U.S. donors in 2016 gave more than $389 billion to charity, with 72 percent of the funds coming directly from individuals, according to the National Philanthropic Trust.

But Americans do more than reach in their pockets to help others. They also contribute their time — and plenty of it. Nearly 63 million people volunteer in the U.S., serving a combined total of 7.9 billion hours per year, the equivalent of $184 billion of service.

Not everyone is equally selfless, however. In the spirit of inspiring altruism, WalletHub determined the most charitable of the 50 states by comparing them across 14 key indicators of charitable behavior. Our data set ranges from volunteer rate to share of income donated to share of sheltered homeless. Read on for our findings, additional commentary from our panel of experts and a full description of our methodology.

https://wallethub.com/edu/most-and-least-charitable-states/8555/#main-findings

[SUHsE]

Good job Washington!

[blackhole99]

Not surprised at PA. coming in so low, the state motto should be" If you can't afford it you don't deserve it".

[StylishLady]

Not sure what criteria/statistics were measured or what it really means. Seeing Utah ranking so highly is not surprising considering so many tithing Mormons live there.

[Goldengate8361]

Interesting, but I’d want to know more about the formulas used to draw these conclusions. I doubt if it included corporate giving or donations made by foundations. 

[sunshine45]

In order to determine the most philanthropic states, WalletHub’s analysts compared the 50 states across two key dimensions, including “Volunteering & Service” and “Charitable Giving”.

We evaluated those dimensions using 14 key metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the “most charitable.”

Finally, we determined each state’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its total score and used the resulting scores to rank-order the states.

Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Corporation for National & Community Service, Education Commission of the States (ECS), Fraser Institute, National Center for Charitable Statistics, Cogency Global, US Department of Housing and Urban Development, Internal Revenue Service, Feeding America and Gallup.

[HiLo]

I live in Md. and it makes me happy to know so many others here also like to give.

[Witchy Woman]

@HiLo

I'm in Maryland too!  Not native, but I love it.

Nice to know that we are a charitable state

[Krimpette]

Another proud Marylander here!

[just bee]

Each state has three rankings:

Volunteering and Service

Charitable Giving

Overall Rank

Not surprised that my state, one of the poorest in the nation, rates higher for volunteering and service.