Did U Know? African Americans Are America’s Most Charitable Group

“A 2003 giving pattern study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy found that African-American donors give, on average, 25% more of their discretionary income to charity than whites in the same income bracket. The study also found that in counties and cities with an above-average number of black residents earning $50,000 a year or more, giving levels tended to be higher. Much of the money donated by African Americans is given through local churches or church-related programs: a whopping nine out of every $10.”

People like Osceola McCarty, a Mississippi washerwoman who, during her lifetime, saved more than $150,000 which she donated to Southern Mississippi University. Forced to leave school after the sixth grade to care for a childless aunt, Ms. McCarty began saving what little she could at an early age: first for candy money, and later to be put into the bank. After more than 75 years of taking in washing McCarty had amassed a sizeable sum in several bank accounts, and approached her bank with an idea: she wanted to allot some money to extended family members, and some to her church, but the lion’s share, she decided, should go to a scholarship fund at Southern Mississippi. Circumstances prevented her from continuing her own education, but Ms. McCarty, who remembered a time when blacks were prohibited from attending the school, wanted to send someone else’s child to college. Of her generous gift, she said: “I can’t do everything,” she said, “but I can do something to help somebody. And what I can do I will do. I wish I could do more.”

TheStateOf…Philanthropy: If you haven’t given to Katrina’s victims, please give here. We should all give something.