A study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy unveiled that in comparison to middle-income and poor people, richer Americans donate less from their income to charities. The former groups, poor and middle-income, give a big amount to charities.

A comparative analysis found that Americans who earned $200,000 per annum or more have reduced the share of their income they donated in charities by 4.6% in 2012 when compared to the amount they donated in 2006.

People who earned less than $100,000 donated 4.5% more of their income. And, the ones who earned $25,000 or less donated 16.6% more. As per the MarketWatch reports, people with modest income continued to support many non-profit agencies in the tough times. Even when the economy has improved, these people continue to support several charities.

Stacy Palmer, editor of The Chronicle of Philanthropy, said that the wealthier people give more to colleges, art museums, opera and hospitals. "Fundraisers at those institutions are very sophisticated and go after wealthy people. Food banks depend more on lower income Americans. They know people who've lost their jobs and respond to appeals from social service organizations", affirmed Palmer.

The findings are based on tax returns filed by Americans. It includes their deductions and charitable gifts. Depending on the ratio of contributions to adjusted gross income, rankings were made as per the states and metropolitan states.

The report makers found maximum changes in giving patterns in major cities, as a significant decline has come in donations between 2006 and 2012. A decline of more than 10% was seen in the share of income donated to charity in Philadelphia and Buffalo, New York.

A drop of 9% was seen in Los Angeles, Minneapolis-St. Paul and Washington, D.C. Utah was declared as the most giving state, as taxpayers there give an average of 6.56% of their income to charity.