Why You’ll Never Guess America’s Top 5 Most Charitable Cities.

Think earning a lot means giving a lot? There’s really almost no overlap between America’s richest cities and its most generous ones, says a recent CharityNavigator.org study, which assigned an overall score to thirty metro areas around the U.S.

Who are the Top Five?

According to the study, the big five charitable cities are (in order):

1. San Diego,
2. Houston,
3. Kansas City,
4. Cincinnati and
5. San Francisco.

So what are the five wealthiest metropolitan areas?

1. San Francisco, with a median household income of $63,024 (the only city to appear on both lists), followed by
2. New York-New Jersey,
3. Baltimore-Washington,
4. Anchorage and
5. Minneapolis-St. Paul.

Oh – and the median income in Houston, the country’s second-most charitable city? Only $21,701.

Why are the rich bad at giving?

A recent Time Magazine article asked, “without an emotional response or a name on a building, would people give as generously?” Wealthy people tend to give mainly “to causes that do comparatively little good and are laced with personal benefits,” causes that perhaps have personal significance, but help little in the grand scheme of things.

Although the U.S. is itself one of the Top Five most giving countries, according to the World Giving Index, that includes all forms of “giving behavior,” including volunteerism and helping strangers. When it comes to donating money, only 57% of Americans gave during the study period, ranking the U.S. well behind Ireland (79%) and others like Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the Netherlands.

A pat on the yarmulke?

Among Forbes Magazine’s Top 50 largest charities, only one is Jewish, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, with an annual revenue of $344M. Yet American Jews give well above the national average, says a 2010 study by economist Mark Ottoni-Wilhelm: “Jewish families are both more likely to give, and, when they do give, give larger amounts.”

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