Charitable Giving/Philanthropy

Some regional differences in charitable giving are illustrated in Table 2.

In 2003, the Chronicle of Philanthropy’s analysis of giving in America’s counties found that, in S.C., Spartanburg County was the most “generous” as its residents gave 9.3% of their discretionary income to charity. Further, the Chronicle rated Spartanburg as one of the most generous large counties in America (see Table 3).

As of March 2009, Spartanburg County was home to 680 501(c)(3) organizations, inclusive of 626 public charities and 54 private foundations (National Center for Charitable Statistics, 2009). Again, with cautious interpretation, Table 4 provides comparison with peer counties.