Happy Giving Tuesday! (#GivingTuesday.) With a third of all annual giving taking place in December and the U.S. ranking No. 4 overall in the 2018 World Giving Index, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2018’s Most Charitable States as well as accompanying videos, along with its Charity Calculator to help donors decide whether to give time or money for maximum philanthropic impact.
To determine where the most generous Americans are inspiring others to be more selfless, WalletHub compared the 50 states based on 18 key indicators of charitable behavior. The data set ranges from volunteer rate to share of income donated to share of sheltered homeless.
Most Charitable States
1 Minnesota 11 Pennsylvania
2 Utah 12 Wyoming
3 New York 13 Ohio
4 Maryland 14 Maine
5 Connecticut 15 Colorado
6 Virginia 16 Illinois
7 Georgia 17 Oregon
8 Washington T-18 New Jersey
9 New Hampshire T-18 Oklahoma
10 Wisconsin 20 Kansas
Key Giving Tuesday Stats
Vermont has the most charities per capita, 27.18, which is 4.7 times more than in Nevada, the state with the fewest at 5.83.
Utah has the highest volunteer rate, 39.29 percent, which is 2.1 times higher than in Florida, the state with the lowest at 18.31 percent.
Utah has the most volunteer hours per capita, 75.6, which is 3.7 times more than in Kentucky, the state with the fewest at 20.7.
Georgia On Giving Tuesday 2018 Most Charitable States List Not California
The list reports that Georgia’s ranked number 7, whereas the high-housing cost state of California is not on it at all and ranked 39th; Nevada is ranked 50th. The Wallethub report does not dive into why this is, but we can make an inference that in the case of California, extremely high hosting costs are to blame, and in the case of Nevada the vast number of ways that Las Vegas takes money plus low wages don’t make for a giving culture.
Jane Dixon is new to blogging in Oakland, but loves The Town!
Zennie Abraham