Community Corner

Bucks County Residents Give $336.3 Million to Charity

Bucks County ranks 88t out of 3,115 counties in the United States for charitable giving.

 

The median contribution a Bucks County taxpayer gives to charity is $2,113, according to data compiled by The Chronicle of Philanthopy.” That’s enough to make Bucks one of the more generous counties in Pennsylvania.

Based on tax records from the IRS for 2008—the most recent year for which such data are available—Bucks residents gave 4.2 percent of their income to charity. That equals $333.63 million in total contributions.

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Do you consider yourself generous? What's your responsibilty for giving to charity?

By comparison, the median contribution in Pennsylvania was 3.9 percent and 4.7 percent for the entire United States. Our neighbors in Montgomery County, however, are the most generous in the state.

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Montgomery residents gave 4.8 percent of their income to charity. That equals $650.6 million in total contributions.

The data comes from a special report, “How America Gives,” that examines charitable giving by zip code and by income in every city and town in the country. The study is based on the exact dollar amount of charitable deductions made by American taxpayers; the information, however, does not pinpoint specific charities people supported.

Bucks is ranked 88th out of 3,115 counties in total contributions measured in the data. Philadelphia is No. 83; Chester, 76; Delaware, 66; Lehigh, 222; Northampton 270.

Based on total contributions, Pennsylvania is also generous, ranking No. 7, having contributed $4.7 billion in the year the data measures. However, when ranked by the percent of income Pennsylvanians give, we only rank No. 40.

The most generous people come from Utah. Utah residents contributed 10.6 percent of their income to charity in 2008.

“Tithing,” or giving 10 percent of personal income to charity, is a staple of the Mormon faith, and 62 percent of the population in Utah is Mormon, according to the U.S. Census.

Should everyone give a tithe?


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