Households in Ridgewood and Glen Rock Not Very Charitable, Study Finds

Citizens in Ridgewood and Glen Rock are not as charitable as they might think, a study published Monday claims.

According to the report conducted by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, households in the village and borough give away a much lower percentage of discretionary income to charity when compared to county, state and national averages.

The study was based on Internal Revenue Service records of Americans who in 2008 itemized their deductions; the study provides ZIP-code level detail about the percentage of discretionary income that people in states, cities, and towns are giving to charity.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy published an interactive map that can be used to find the charitable contributions of towns across the entire country.

Households in Ridgewood and Glen Rock actually came in well above the national donation figures if measured by the raw dollar amount, the study found. Ridgewood handed out $37 million and Glen Rock donated a cool $11 million in itemized returns, good for 428th and 3,512th nationally out of 28,725 zip codes.

But when factoring the percentage of income, the story changes.

Nationally, households gave a median contribution of $2,564 on $54,783, or 4.7 percent, according to the study. In New Jersey, the median contribution totalled $2,181 on $59,113, or 3.7 percent. In Bergen County, the median contribution amounts to $2,413 on $52,114, just under the national average at 4.6 percent.

Ridgewood households gave $4,998 as a median contribution on an income level of $168,587, checking in at 3.0 percent, according to the IRS figures. Households in Glen Rock gave away a median contribution of $3,040 on $106,475, 2.9 percent of discretionary income.

One of the major findings of the study held that lower income households tended to give more, a trend that held true in Ridgewood and Glen Rock.

The highest percentage of contributions – 9.5 percent in Ridgewood, 7.9 percent in Glen Rock – came from households with a median income in the $50,000 to $100,000 range. Those making between $100,000 and $200,000 in Ridgewood donated 3.7 percent of income; Glen Rockers in that bracket gave 3.2 percent.

Top earners making $200,000 or more gave a paltry 2.6 percent of discretionary income in Ridgewood and an even lower percentage, 2.0, in Glen Rock.

A religious effect to charitable giving also was found in the itemized tax returns.

Many cities and states in the Northeast, the least-religious region of the country, make up the bottom of 3 percent or less of their discretionary income to charity, according to the report.

But according to the chart released with the report, when religion is factored out of the giving picture, the northeast rises to the top.

Note: Not all who give to charity take a tax deduction or file for a return. The study only takes into account itemized deductions from 2008.