Study: 90% Gave to Charity in '02

By Kelly Ettenborough and Susie Steckner

Nine out of 10 Arizona residents donated to charity last year, according to an Arizona State University survey.

Although a sour economy hurt corporate giving, individual Arizonans gave an average of more than $1,500 to charities during 2002, with religious organizations and youth programs topping the list of beneficiaries.

The study, released last week, found that residents also were generous with their time. More than half of those surveyed said they volunteered for charities in addition to donating money.

"These results suggest that evaluating the quality of life in Arizona is incomplete without examining the contribution of time and money provided by individual households," said Robert Ashcraft. He is director and associate professor at ASU's Center for Nonprofit Leadership Management, which produced the study.

The study was based on a random telephone survey of 1,004 residents and focused just on contributions to charitable, nonprofit organizations. Arizona has more than 11,500 of the groups. The report's margin of error was plus or minus 3.2 percentage points.

• The average annual cash that residents gave to charity was about $1,570.
• Those who donated gave about 3 percent of their annual household income, on par with the national average of $1,620, 3.2 percent of annual household income.
• Nearly 60 percent gave donations to three to five organizations.