Here Are The Most Generous, Giving Towns In Delaware
By Katy|Published April 14, 2016
×
Katy
Author
Katy is a life-long Delaware resident who grew up on a small grain farm and spent her summers enjoying time at the beach. A full time public relations professional by day and a content specialist with OIYS at night, Katy loves sharing her love of her home state with fellow Delawareans and others. Loves: local food, dachshunds, horseshoe crabs, hiking, farmers markets, bourbon.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy analyzes a variety of data sources, like the U.S. Census Bureau and the IRS, to develop a report of “How America Gives.” We took a look at their latest comprehensive report from 2012 to pull together the Delaware cities and towns whose residents give the most money to charitable donations.
According to the report, Delawareans gave just over $476 million in 2012, with a giving ratio of 2.74%. This means that Delawareans gave approximately 2.74% of their adjusted gross income to charitable donations. Based on that percentage, our giving ration was more than our neighbors Pennsylvania and New Jersey, but less than Maryland.
There are two ways to look at the numbers. We can either see which zip codes gave the most in terms of dollar amounts, and then we can look at who gave the most based on their percentage of income.
First, let’s look at who gave the most based on their own income (giving ratio).
Based on the most recent report, Milford residents gave an average of 3.53% of their adjusted gross income to charity. Total contributions that year topped $8 million; not too shabby!
Bridgeville barely edged out Milford, at a 3.55% giving ratio. But Milford had them beat for overall contributions, most likely due to the larger population. Bridgeville contributed just shy of $3 million.
Ok. I'll admit I was a little shocked by this one. Seaford residents contributed $9.2 million! Their ratio was just slightly higher than Milford and Bridgeville at 3.59%.
And this one wasn't really a shock. In fact, we were more surprised that more northern cities didn't rise to the top of giving ratios. Northwest Wilmington and areas between I-95 and I-495 above the Brandywine gave $8.67 million at a giving ratio of 3.73.
Tiny little Greenwood, Delaware has the highest ratio of giving to adjusted gross income at 4.62%. Overall contribution for the town was 'only' $2.61 million; that's a lot considering the lower income and population of the town. Way to go, Greenwood!
And, of course, we can’t ignore the millions that are donated by residents in the zip codes below, which by ratio, don’t give as much of their incomes, but the dollar amounts account for a significant portion of the state’s overall share.
With many suburban neighborhoods in this zip code, seeing a contribution of $23.09 million based on the population seems about right. That being said, the giving ratio for the area came in at 2.67%, lower than the state average.
This area of Delaware is considered to be one of the most wealthy, and historic mansions remind us of that. 19803 residents contributed $24.3 million total, but the giving ratio was lower still at 2.45%.
Consuming a large portion of southern new Castle County and many suburban developments and shopping areas, Bear contributed a nice round $25 million. The giving ratio was higher here too than the previous two coming in at 2.78%.
I'm pretty sure this is the zip code that most Delawareans would have guessed contributed the most, but would you have guessed $36.7 million worth of charitable gifts? The giving ratio was still significantly lower than any on our top ratio list at 2.70%. This was significantly down from the ratio of 5.19% ratio of giving in 2006. But still, kudos to the 19803!
Regardless of any fancy research figures, we know that Delawareans are giving of their time, energy, and money. It’s part of what makes this state great.
OnlyInYourState may earn compensation through affiliate links in this article. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
