Hubbub What Milwaukee is talking about SHARE

By of the

People in Minnesota and Illinois are a little more giving than those of us in Wisconsin – or at least they say they are when a pollster asks.

The website Five Thirty-Eight on Tuesday highlighted a Gallup survey that asked poll respondents whether they had given money to a charity in the past month. Sixty-five percent of Wisconsinites said, "yes" slightly trailing respondents in Illinois (70%), Minnesota (66%) and Ohio (66%). Sixty-four percent of Iowans and Missourians and 60% of Michiganders say they gave.

Five Thirty-Eight also paired its analysis with information from a 2012 study of Internal Revenue Service data by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. According to that data, Wisconsin residents gave $348, less than Minnesota ($480), Illinois ($466), Michigan, ($384) and Missouri ($381). We give a bit more than people in Ohio and Iowa.

Gallup's overall ranking places Wisconsin 15th among all states, just behind a couple of its neighbors.

The author of the piece, Mona Chalabi, notes survey respondents could be fibbing.

"I have mentioned how “social desirability bias” can push survey respondents to fib; some respondents in Gallup’s poll might not have given 100 percent squeaky-clean answers for fear of being judged uncharitable," she wrote.

Gallup also measured whether residents of states donated their time. When considerign people who gave both time and money, Wisconsin ranks behind Minnesota and Illinois, but ahead of other nearby states.