Page 26 - MidJersey Business - September 2014

CHARITABLE GIVING
IN MERCER COUNTY

for only about 10 percent of all latter, it begs the question; is phi-
THE UNKNOWNS
Despite its importance both in giving in the United States. This lanthropy more closely related to

terms of its economic signiicance is important to note, not because donor interest than it is to directly
and its role in addressing societal we feel that corporations are not addressing the pressing needs

ills, not much is known about the giving enough money, but rather of the community? How can we
speciics of philanthropy. This re- that it should be understood that encourage donors to give to initia-

port set out to shed light the phil- much of the responsibility for tives that serve the most pressing
anthropic sector; we attempted
philanthropy still falls on the need? These questions address

to characterize philanthropy as individual. As such, individual the very nature of philanthropy
whole with special attention paid giving continues to be the most by questioning the assumptions

ANNUAL PER
to Mercer County. We hope that important aspect of charitable that govern this ield. To truly use
this report will help steer future giving and we should not assume philanthropy to afect societal
CAPITA INCOME
IN NEW JERSEY
research. While conducting our that societal issues would be change, we must understand the
research, we found answers as solved through corporations and discrepancy between what we as-
($35,928) IS
well as additional questions.
their foundations. Our collective sume to be true and what the data
ALMOST $8,000
In large part, these questions sense of responsibility fosters actually proves true.
HIGHER THAN THE
arise from the lack of transpar- more societal change than we We used many of these ques-
NATIONAL AVER-
ency and data available regarding often believe.
tions to frame this report, which
AGE AND THE ME-
philanthropy. To further our looked at the charitable giving
DIAN HOUSEHOLD
understanding of the sector and to system in Mercer County. We
INCOME IN NEW
help improve its eicacy, it is cru- WHERE FUNDING GOES
Another major inding of our re- unearthed some interesting and

JERSEY ($71,637)
cial that access to this information search was how much more fund- telling indings. Particularly, one
IS MORE THAN
is made public. However, despite ing went to religion and education of the more interesting indings

$18,000 HIGHER
the limitations we faced regarding than to more acute causes such as in this study was the impact that
access to information, we were health, human services, and public the state of New York had in
THAN THE NA-
TIONAL AVERAGE.
able to make several indings that societal beneits. While we do not philanthropic channels within
further our understanding of question the value of education Mercer County. While we ex-
POVERTY RATES IN
philanthropy, both nationally and nor the importance of religion to pected that New York, due to its
MERCER (10.8%)
at state and local level.
the donors, we feel that this does proximity and sheer size, would
AND NEW JERSEY
raise a question that speaks to the be a major source of funding, we
(9.9%) ARE BOTH
very essence of philanthropy: Do were mildly surprised to ind that

CONSIDERABLY
THERE’S AN ‘I’ IN DONATION
Nationally, the major source of we give to help the needy or do
it provided more money to Mercer
LOWER THAN
funding comes from individual we give to causes that are closer County than New Jersey itself.
THE NATIONAL
giving. Consistently, over 70 to our values? If the answer is the
Additionally, we were astonished

AVERAGE (14.9%).
percent of all charitable giving
comes from individuals, dwaring

the next highest source of fund-
ing, foundations. Here, there was
AMERICANS GAVE NEARLY
a prevailing belief in the public
that corporations and corporate $316.23 BILLION
TO CHARITY IN 2012.
foundations were a signiicant
source of philanthropy. While PEOPLE DONATE FOR DIFFERENT REASONS:

corporations and corporate foun- To support schools and colleges,
dations donated money towards
hospitals, and churches.
philanthropic causes, the amounts
contributed from these sources
To encourage scientiic innovation
are not nearly as much as what
families give by writing checks through universities.

and putting money in church To foster social change through

plates. In fact, corporations and
corporate foundations account
community-based organizations.

business
24 midJersey