Poll of State Finds Open Hand for Charity

Californians of all races and from all corners of the state are far more philanthropic than previously reported, donating more money and volunteering more than twice as many hours as the national average, according to a new survey by the University of San Francisco.

The new poll found that state residents report giving about 3% of their household income to charitable organizations, in contrast to previous studies that quoted lower figures for Californians. The national average is 2%. Overall, 90% of California households report giving money to charity, compared with 70% nationally.

State residents who volunteer said they donate 8.5 hours per week compared with just 4.2 hours nationally. One out of two Californians volunteers, matching the national average.

The leading recipient of volunteer efforts in California was schools; religious groups and churches led in other parts of the country.

“One difference is that our public school system is under a lot of stress,” said Eleanor Brown, an economist at Pomona College. “People put time into helping out at schools. In California, they feel they have to.”

Researchers say they can’t explain the apparent upswing in generosity demonstrated by the study, which sampled more than 2,406 adults statewide in 30-minute telephone interviews.

“We’re scratching our heads,” said Michael O’Neill, director of the university’s Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management, which conducted the survey between July 1998 and May 1999. The margin of error was plus or minus 3 percentage points.

“Maybe Californians are truly more generous than the rest of the nation,” O’Neill said. “Maybe they have more leisure time. Or greater tax incentives. Or perhaps they’re better recruited by nonprofits. Then again, maybe they’re more likely to overstate giving and volunteering. But in our study, Californians emerge as being much more generous than people think.”

The new report, released last week, also suggests that Latinos, Asians and African Americans donate at levels similar to those of white residents. That finding contradicts results in six national studies that show whites giving more time and money, O’Neill said.

He attributed the discrepancy to the San Francisco study’s discounting the influence of income, education and immigration status.

The survey also found that the rate of giving and volunteering varies little across the state.

That result flies in the face of a 1995 national study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy that compared the giving habits of residents in the country’s 50 largest metropolitan areas.

Although San Francisco ranked 11th in that study, Los Angeles was near the bottom, at No. 49, and Fresno dead last, at No. 50.

“In spite of popular stereotypes about one region being generous and another stingy, we found no evidence of charitable differences statewide,” O’Neill said. The study divided California into four major regions: Los Angeles County, the rest of Southern California, the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area, and the Central Valley and other counties.

O’Neill said one reason the results varied from past polls is that researchers asked more detailed questions about the various ways that recipients might help others.

“It wasn’t just about writing a check to your favorite charity,” he said. “There were a lot more questions on informal charity, person-to-person giving.”

The study also questioned people about the often-significant informal philanthropy that occurs in many ethnic groups in cities such as Los Angeles and other parts of the state.

Researchers found that recent immigrants are more likely to offer person-to-person donations rather than giving to established charities--the more traditional recipients of philanthropy chronicled in other studies.

The San Francisco survey defined person-to-person giving as aiding extended family, friends and people from one’s ethnic group.

Said O’Neill: “It’s just helping people you know who are having a hard time, taking food or clothing to them, letting them stay in your home for a while because they’re down on their luck.”

Brown said the report broke new ground by identifying ethnic philanthropy invisible in other studies.

“The traditional measures of philanthropy are based on an old-style city with a social structure and integrated philanthropic life, but that Old World society doesn’t represent California,” Brown said.

“If your first guess at measuring philanthropy is how it’s done in New York or San Francisco, you’ll miss what’s going on in Los Angeles and other cites that don’t fit the pattern,” she said. “That’s why this study is so important. It represents all forms of giving.”

O’Neill said the purpose of the study was to present a detailed picture of charitable giving in the nation’s largest state and the world’s seventh-largest economy in the late 1990s.

When asked why they volunteered, 42% of respondents said they did so to help others, 21% said it was something they felt they needed to do, 20% said they wanted to do something useful, and 19% said they thought they would enjoy the work.

Of those who did not volunteer, 35% said it was because they were too busy with work, 19% cited family considerations, and 13% said they did not know how to become involved.

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Charity in California

Some findings of the study on philanthropy among Californians:

GIVING

* Donors report giving about 3% of their household income to charitable organizations. The national average is 2%.

* The median contribution was $628 per year, or 1.9% of household income.

* Rates of giving were similar for men, women and all age groups.

* Whites, blacks, Asians and Latinos donate money at comparable rates. This contradicts previous studies that showed lower giving levels for ethnic minority groups.

* The percentage of giving does not increase as income increases.

VOLUNTEERING

* Rates of volunteering are similar for men, women and all age and income groups.

* Whites, blacks and Asians volunteer at comparable rates.

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Source: Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management at the University of San Francisco