Why The Richest Americans Are Donating Less To Charity Than Poor Americans?

Interestingly, a study shows that richest Americans are giving less of their income to charities, while poor and middle-income people are donating a larger share, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s analysis of tax-deduction data from the IRS.

While the United States boasts the largest number of billionaires in the world, Wealthy Americans have gotten stingy about giving to charity.

There may be a reason the wealthiest Americans keep getting richer since the recession because they are giving less money to charity than poorer Americans.

– The wealthiest Americans, who earned $200,000 or more a year reduced their charitable donations by 4.6 percent.

– Those earning less than $100,000 annually bumped up giving to good causes by 4.5 percent or more of their income.

– Those earning $25,000 or less donating 16.6% more.

– Among the 50 largest cities, Salt Lake City had the most generous residents, giving away 5.4% of their incomes. It was followed by Memphis, Tennessee (#2); Birmingham, Alabama(#3); Atlanta (#4), and Nashville, Tennessee (#5).

– The No. 1 most generous state was Utah, Mississippi was the 2nd-most giving state in the United States, while Alabama came in 3rd, followed by Tennessee (#4th) and Georgia (#5th).

– Wealthy Americans tended to donate more to art museums, opera, higher education, or hospitals than to social service charities.

– Unlike their wealthier counterparts, lower- and middle-income American often give to social service organizations

Keep in mind that, even though the percentage of contributions from rich Americans declined, they still contributed more money overall, the wealthiest Americans donated $77.5 billion in 2012, an increase of $4.6 billion after adjusting for inflation.

Those who earned less than $100,000 gave $57.3 billion in the same period. In all, Americans donated $180 billion to charity in 2012.