Politics & Government
Lower-Income Newtown Residents Give at Higher Percentage
A recent review of tax records revealed that those who make less in Newtown gave a higher percentage of their income to charity.
“You have not lived today until you have done something for someone who can never repay you.” ― John Bunyan
Out of nearly 29,000 zip codes in the United States, Newtown is in the top 600 most charitable communities in the nation, according to study called “The Chronicle of Philanthopy,” which was .
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The report is based on IRS tax data from 2008. The records showed that the 18940 zip code donated $32.2 million to IRS-registered charitable organizations.
The data showed that Newtown taxpayers on average gave about 3.4 percent of the their median income of $78,903 to charity.
Find out what's happening in Newtownwith free, real-time updates from Patch.
By comparison, the median contribution in Pennsylvania was 3.9 percent and 4.7 percent for the entire United States. Utah residents gave the highest percentage - contributing more than 10 percent of their income to charity.
In Newtown, the data reveals that lower-income residents tended to donate a much bigger share of their median income to charity than their wealthier neighbors did in 2008.
Residents who made less than $100,000 gave 5.4 percent of the their income, data reports. However, those who made more than $100,000 only gave 2.85 percent of the yearly income to charity.
As a whole, the Philadelphia region gave more than $3 billion dollars to charities in 2008, the report shows.
The study also found that monetary donations to charity organizations by large companies in 2011 remained stagnant and is not expected to increase much this year.
Charitable Giving by Area Zip Code
18977: Washington Crossing
Total Contributions $5.2 million
Median Contribution $3,366
Median Income $115,953
Percent Given 2.9%
18925: Furlong
Total Contributions $4 million
Median Contribution $2,380
Median Income $91,713
Percent Given 2.6%
19047: Langhorne
Total Contributions $18-million
Median Contribution $2,184
Median Income $62,306
Percent Given 3.5%
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