Minority Homeowners Give More to Charity Than Whites, Study Finds

Homeowners who live in neighborhoods that are predominantly black or Hispanic donate a

greater percentage of their income to charity than do those who live in white areas, according to a new analysis conducted for The Chronicle by the Urban Institute’s National Center for Charitable Statistics.

The study, which was based on Internal Revenue Service data classified according to a taxpayer’s ZIP code, found that people who itemize deductions on their federal income-tax returns — mainly homeowners — in primarily black areas donated 5.1 percent of their income to charity, those in Hispanic areas donated 3.8 percent, and those in white areas contributed 3.3 percent.

Because the study was based only on people who itemize their deductions and therefore reported donations, it reflects giving patterns largely of people in middle- to upper-income brackets. About 26 percent of Americans itemize their tax returns, although the study found that the percentage varied by race. In ZIP codes where the majority of people are white, 30 percent of taxpayers itemized their deductions, compared with 27 percent in majority-black areas and 22 percent in majority-Hispanic ones.

The study, however, found that the differences in giving among racial and ethnic groups remained about the same even after income levels were taken into account, according to Joseph Cordes, a George Washington University economist who helped analyze the data for the Urban Institute.

The percentage of income donated in ZIP codes where blacks and Hispanics make up the majority of residents is roughly the same regardless of where they live. But for majority-white ZIP codes, the rate of giving varies widely depending on geography, from 4.1 percent of income in the South to 2.5 percent in the Northeast.

The study was based on 1997 data, the most recent information that the IRS has available sorted by ZIP code.

Previous Studies

The results of the Urban Institute study are quite different from those in a 1999 study by Independent Sector, which found that blacks and Hispanics give less to charity than whites. That report concluded that African-American and Hispanic households donated a smaller percentage of their annual income to charity than did white households in 1998. However, a 2000 study by the Institute for Nonprofit Organization Management at the University of San Francisco found that blacks living in California donated a higher percentage of their income than whites.

Researchers who have studied giving patterns said the findings of the various studies do not necessarily reflect real differences in generosity among racial and ethnic groups, however.

“Middle- and upper-income blacks are solicited more intensely,” said Julian Wolpert, a professor at Princeton University. “There’s a lot of pressure on blacks who have made it.”

Paul G. Schervish, director of the Social Welfare Institute at Boston College, said that by focusing on taxpayers who itemize their deductions, the Urban Institute study ended up looking at homeowners, who, in addition to having higher incomes, also have more ties to their communities. “Black homeowners are very active and very connected to their community and their churches,” Mr. Schervish said. But, taking note of the Independent Sector study that found lower giving by blacks, he added that many factors other than race affect giving. “It isn’t that race by itself is a positive or negative factor on giving.”

Another factor that researchers have found to affect giving rates is whether people live with other family members. Those who do, Mr. Schervish said, generally donate to charity at higher rates than those who do not. Mr. Cordes said that because the 2000 Census data on the number of families and family size is not yet available at the ZIP-code level, the Urban Institute study was unable to determine whether differences among blacks, whites, and Hispanics in those areas would make a difference.

“Besides race, what the study might be picking up is family type,” Mr. Schervish said. “Black homeowners also have a greater percentage of children in school and are more likely to be church members. They’re a special group of people.”