We find the Associated Press on the case, dutifully reporting on what the principal actors have to say:
"We believe that generosity is a function of how much one gives to the ability one has to give," said Martin Cohn, a spokesman for the Catalogue for Philanthropy, a Boston-based nonprofit that publishes a directory of nonprofit organizations.That seems like a reasonable premise, but it doesn't necessarily follow that any function of those two characteristics is a good one. This seems to be the thrust of the Boston Foundation's critique:
"If everyone in Massachusetts gave 100 times as much to charity as we do today and everything else remains the same, we wouldn't get above the bottom half of the chart," said David Trueblood, a spokesman for the foundation. "And no matter what Mississippi did, it couldn't fall below 22nd or 23rd."This seems to be an accurate assessment, conditional on what other states are doing, at least based on my quick look at the index that is posted. But here's the fun part of the article:
Cohn said he was disappointed that the Boston Foundation chose to attack the index without understanding that its purpose is to promote discussion about philanthropy and that it never sought to hang a label on any state.And maybe that's a true statement of Cohn's intent, but I think it's a bit ridiculous to be disappointed in an interview for an article that wound up with the title, "New Hampshire Is Named Most Miserly State." A little self-awareness on the part of the AP would be a welcome addition, too.
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5 comments:
Eyeballing the index it seems "Red States" on average are more generous than "Blue States." Given the caveats about the index this observation should be taken with a grain of salt.
i need to read more of the links you have.
in the meanwhile, i would not be too hard on new england based on anecdotal observation and discussion with a fundraiser from a non-profit.
people in california have new money. they also seem to spend a lot of time worried about plastic surgery, auto leases and other surface things. housing is expensive. charity and non-profits have to try hard to raise $s (although not Stanford)
people in new england tend to be thoughtful about donations. once they buy in to a non-profit, they are very supportive and have deep and generous pockets for some stuff.
A quick glance at the top 10 states in the 'Generousity Index' looks more to me like 'lowest cost of living index'.
'Generousity Index' is (to put it mildly) a loaded term, especially when it excludes non-discretionary expenses like housing and energy - which are least expensive in the states at the top of the list.
It would be interesting to see how the list would look if we were to take such locally variable expenses into account, and then apply the red/blue paradigm.
The result might shatter some smug assumptions about who is miserly and who is generous.
That index is (as Trueblood mentioned) a crock of bull.
Ceteris paribus, if Connecticut residents gave 100% of their income to charity and Mississippi residents gave 0% to charity, then the two states would be tied for 23rd place in the so-called "Generosity Index."
A much better measure (and no more difficult to display given the supposed data sources), would be AICD/AGI. Then rank the states based on giving as a percentage of income. I have seen these types of rankings before and Utah will rank #1 b/c the overwhelming majority of their residents tithe. And even though I fundamentally disagree with what the federal government classifies as "charitable giving," at least that would be a fair measure...
Folks.. you're making this way too complicated. It's a sham and an outright sham. Connecticut has a range of 0 to -50 whereas Mississippi has a range of 0 to 50. Even if Connecticut was #1 in giving and Mississippi was #50 in giving, they would still be tied at 0. There is no way, under the methodology (if you can consider it that) for Connecticut to do any better than TIE Mississippi, even if Connecticut residents gave 100% of their income to charity and Mississippi residents gave nothing at all.
Think about it for a second and actually play with the numbers.
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