A customer walks from Outreach Ministries' thrift store March 7, 2016, in Philadelphia.
Pennsylvanians are more likely to help their neighbors, stick with a volunteer activity and partake in fundraising compared to most other areas of the country, according to a recent study.
Researchers with personal finance website WalletHub recently combed through various data for the study, “2019’s Most Charitable States.” Pennsylvania ranked sixth of the 50 states.
Charitable giving, naturally, is a front-and-center topic amid the holidays. WalletHub asked a number of academics and experts to weigh in on this topic in a broad sense.
Femida Handy, professor and director of the University of Pennsylvania’s social welfare program, offered her insight and views on a number of topics, including the percentage of income households should donate to charity.
“All households, with incomes above the median income, should donate, and they should donate anywhere from 2 to 6 percent of their incomes,” Handy said.
According to WalletHub, study data was analyzed into two overarching categories – the first being volunteering and service, the other under the overarching umbrella of charitable giving. Pennsylvania ranked No. 12 in the first category, and No. 11 in the second one.
However, more granular analyses within both categories were weighted differently, which pushed Pennsylvania into its single-digit position within WalletHub’s analysis.
A look at states’ numbers of volunteer hours per capita carried 12.5 points, for instance, while a metric on the number of charities per capita carried 2.78 points. All told, Pennsylvania notched 65.88 points in both categories.
WalletHub financial writer Adam McCann said multiple sources were considered for the analysis, with data gleaned from such organizations as the Corporation for National and Community Service, Charity Navigator, Gallup and U.S. Census Bureau.
Pennsylvania landed in the top 10 in five metrics. The state tied for No. 1 in the metric of state regulations deemed friendly to charities.
According to the report, 43.61 percent of Pennsylvanians engage in fundraising or sell items to raise money for a specific cause. The statistic landed the state in No. 4 for the individual metric.
Pennsylvania also landed in the top 20 percent of all states in the nation using Google to search for charities (No. 6 ranking). Data also revealed 58.9 percent of the state’s population reported doing favors for neighbors, resulting in a No. 8 ranking in the metric.
Additionally, the state was singled out for having a higher than average volunteer retention rate. Data suggested 69 percent of Pennsylvanians stick with a charity after pledging to volunteer time and money to the cause.
On the other end of the spectrum, Pennsylvania fell into the bottom 10 of all states in one specific metric: share of income donated. According to WalletHub, Pennsylvanians on average donate 1.12 percent of their income – a statistic that landed the state at No. 40.
Neighboring states had across-the-board overall ranks in the analysis. Maryland ranked No. 3, Ohio was No. 5, New York was No. 19, New Jersey was No 29 and West Virginia was No. 42.
The most charitable state, according to WalletHub, is Minnesota, while the least charitable is Arizona.
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