MAY 2007
Deeper Pockets Found In City of Angels
Maybe all those Hollywood fundraisers do more than show off the newest designer fashions and the brightest bling. It turns out that well-off Southern Californians are twice as generous when donating to charities as people in the rest of the state, according to a new research study by San Francisco’s NewTithing Group.
The nonprofit research organization, founded by retired money manager and philanthropist Claude Rosenberg Jr., MBA ’52, based its study on data from the California Franchise Tax Board. The group looked at “affluent” Californians—those earning $200,000 or more—and estimated their investment asset wealth (including stocks, bonds, and other private investments, but excluding real estate) from their 2004 tax returns, the most recent records available. It then examined charitable giving by the median affluent tax filer from various regions of the state. The median affluent Los Angeles County taxpayer donated approximately 1 percent per $500,000 of his or her estimated wealth. Counterparts in the rest of Southern California gave almost as much, 0.96 percent.
But the median affluent tax filer in other areas of the state donated far less—in the San Francisco area, excluding Silicon Valley, the rate of giving was only about half of that in Los Angeles, or 0.52 percent. The median affluent Silicon Valley income tax filer gave just 0.47 percent.
In terms of the average rate of giving, however, Silicon Valley comes out on top, at 1.24 percent. Averages are notoriously skewed by outliers: The Valley’s average generosity was likely boosted by a handful of large gifts, says Tim Stone, president and director of NewTithing.