Alexandria – Online Giving Mecca
No, that’s not Alexandria, Egypt (a fascinating city by the way).
It’s Alexandria, Virginia — according to Convio, the top city in America (with population over 100,000) in terms of per capita online giving. Convio’s used online fundraising figures from its clients ($750 million in 2008, topping that in 2009) to come up with the list.
Here are the top ten:
- Alexandria, VA
- Cambridge, MA
- Minneapolis, MN
- Arlington, VA
- Seattle, WA
- St. Louis, MO
- Austin, TX
- Bellevue, WA (giving back all those Microsoft profits!)
- Washington, DC
- Pittsburgh, PA
And the most generous small cities:
- Paramus, NJ
- Princeton, NJ
- Georgetown, TX
- Katy, TX
- Bethesda, MD
- Silver Spring, MD
- Spring, TX
- Marietta, GA
- The Woodlands, TX
- Fairfax, VA
Go ahead, admit it! Even though this list has absolutely minimal social redeeming value, you’re dying to see where your city ranks!
OK, here’s the entire list. And here’s a video of Convio’s Gene Austin chatting about the study.
Thanks, Convio, for this great water cooler conversation item. E.g., "Hah! 6 out of these top 20 positions cover the Washington metro area … I knew those bureaucrats were overpaid. And all those Texas ones … must be those well-fed Convio consultants!"
Tom
2 responses to “Alexandria – Online Giving Mecca”
Behavioral Science Q & A
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I’m not an expert in this but a quick search surfaced this article on the effect of tax reforms on 2019’s charitable giving. The researchers didn’t find a reduction. Actually, they observed an “increase in charitable contributions in 2019, even with the lower tax rates and the dramatically smaller number of taxpayers who itemize their […]
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I’d be curious to find out if political campaigns were included in this study as D.C. suburbs seem to be disproportionately represented. If so, were donations from registered lobbyists included? Thanks!
Very interesting but agree about the minimal social redeeming value, because maybe a contributing factor to why so many localities in the DC metro area appear on both lists is what possibly is a disproportionate number of people in the nonprofit/ fundraising industry residing in these areas who are giving to nonprofits and organizations for which/with which they work?