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A geographic thumbnail to giving

Nonprofit leaders know that generosity is the lifeblood of nonprofit endeavors, but they also know that generosity is not limited to money, not that money hurts.

In their book “American Generosity,” Patricia Snell Herzog and Heather E. Price offer the results to many studies to gain an understanding of how Americans support the causes that matter to them.

One finding they offer is what they call the Landscape of American Generosity.

That means:

* The Midwest has the highest rate of donors.

* The South consistently has the lowest rates of donors and amounts.

* The West has the highest rate of financial donors and of donation amounts.

* The Northeast has the most distributed form of time given, with the highest rates of volunteers and political activists coupled with the fewest hours given per person.

* College graduates are more likely to participate in what the authors call Big 3 forms of giving (money, time, political action) and give larger sums of money.

* Americans who regularly attend religious services are more likely to volunteer and give more hours to it. They also donate larger sums of money but fewer hours to political action.

* Older and married people are more likely to give money than younger people and the unmarried.

* Adults with youth in the household are more likely to volunteer.

* White, non-Hispanic Americans are more likely to donate money than other racial/ethnic groups, while nonwhite Americans are more likely to take political action.