Study Compares Charitable Giving in Boston Area and Elsewhere in U.S.

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Geography and Giving: The Culture of Philanthropy in New England and the Nation, is based on research by John J. Havens and Paul G. Schervish, at Boston College’s Center on Wealth and Philanthropy. The study looked at religious and secular giving by income level, geographic region and metropolitan area, religious affiliation, educational attainment, occupation, race, and several other characteristics. The report shows that the richest people in the Boston metropolitan area make some of the largest gifts in the entire country, while middle- and low-income households give less than do their counterparts in other regions; the report blames Massachusetts’s high tax burden and a cost of living that “squeezes” low-income families. Of all racial groups in Massachusetts, black people give the largest percentage of their income to charity, mostly to religious groups. The researchers compare giving levels among residents of different states, but say they believe that “models that build up from the micro-level components of families and households provide better estimates of regional differences than those that use states as the unit of analysis.”

Publisher: Boston Foundation, 75 Arlington Street, 10th Floor, Boston, Mass. 02116; (617) 338-1700; fax (617) 338-1604; info@tbf.org; http://www.tbf.org; 71 pages; available free for download on the foundation’s Web site.