Generosity Index Ranks Giving By State

The Catalog for Philanthropy has released its 2004 Generosity Index (GI), a state-by-state analysis of individual tax returns and charitable giving patterns. The 2004 index (based on 2002 tax returns) ranks Mississippi, Arkansas and Oklahoma as the most generous, and Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire as the least.

The GI is based on the philosophy that philanthropic generosity is not just how much one gives, but how much one gives in relation to how much one has. So Mississippi, despite having the lowest per capita income, ranks first because its citizens give disproportionately more of their income than their wealthier counterparts such as California and Connecticut. The underlying research methodology can be found at the site.

Nifty 50: Top Philanthropists Giving Even More

While overall giving may be growing only slightly, the largest donors in the United States are increasing their gifts by tremendous amounts, according to BusinessWeek’s third annual rankings of the Top 50 U.S. Philanthropists.

For instance, Bill and Melinda Gates donated their entire stock dividend worth $3 billion! That's more than the entire Walton family of Wal-Mart fame have given in their entire lifetimes. The other big gift was from the estate of Susie Buffet (Warren Buffet, Berkshire Hathaway's wife) of $2.5 billion.

For the rundown, go to the article - The Top Givers (registration required).

We're In the Money: Millionaires Growing at Record Rate

The number of households with more than one million dollars in net worth (excluding primary residence) has risen to a record high as well as at a record rate, according to new research released today by TNS Financial Services. According to the latest Affluent Market Research Program (AMRP), TNS’ annual survey of wealthy U.S. households, the number has shot to 8.2 million as of mid-2004, a 33 percent increase over last year. The addition of two million households to the high net worth market is the largest increase ever recorded by the study, which began monitoring this group in 1981.

A Bypass Trust Can Assist Wealthy Couples

For married couples with estates valued at more than the federal estate-tax exemption, a bypass trust can sharply reduce the potential burden. Bypass trusts also offer a few other important benefits. (Source: The Houston Chronicle)

Donor Advised Fund Reforms Welcomed

Based on hearings that took place last June, and its own research, the US Senate Finance Committee’s staff has proposed a number of recommendations to more closely regulate donor advised funds. The Non-Profit Times reports that these reforms are being welcomed by a number of leaders in the field.

The National Philanthropic Trust, along with other leading providers of donor advised funds, has always supported strict compliance with existing tax law, and has been a leading advocate for establishing model standards of practive. In fact, NPT, and a number of peers, are already doing what these proposals recommend.

While a couple of the proposals should be modified, to ensure the costs of providing this valuable charitable giving vehicle remain as low as possible, and the details of others still need to defined, overall it should help the market as a whole.