Memphis leads USA in charitable giving, new study says

Spurred by donations to public schools, Memphis surpassed Salt Lake City this year to rank as the most generous metropolitan area in the United States, giving almost $6 of every $100 in earned income to philanthropy.

Metro Memphis moved from No. 2 in 2014 to first in a new study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, an authoritative magazine in Washington covering the nonprofit industry.

Southern cities rooted in church philanthropy make up the bulk of the most generous American cities, although education reform set Memphis apart from this religious tradition.

Memphis moved to the top rank largely due to donations from local families made on behalf of public education following the decision by the Seattle-based Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation nearly a decade ago to improve public schools in the city, said Robert Fockler, president of the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis.

Gates’ decision to invest $90 million in Memphis public schools led an array of well-off families in Memphis to shrug off the pessimism heard widely in the city and take on the responsibility for civic improvements.

“What happened here among these privileged families was the realization that if we’re going to make this city better we have to invest in Memphis," Fockler said, noting his foundation’s asset base began to sharply climb after the Gates initiative was disclosed.

Fockler discussed the Chronicle of Philanthropy study Tuesday during a meeting with the editorial board of The Commercial Appeal.

Memphians’ decision to pour money into public education including charter and Improvement Zone schools came even though many wealthy families were educated in expensive private schools, Fockler said.

Over the last decade, the Community Foundation of Greater Memphis increased almost 50 percent in asset size to $430 million with the bulk of the donations made with specific instructions to channel the money into public education, Fockler said.

The Community Foundation, whose donors include about 800 families, is considered the largest of more than a dozen nonprofits in the city organized to look after the well being of Memphians.

Donations accelerated at a time when Memphis was coming out of the recession and was beginning or completing a spate of public projects that tended to dial back the pessimistic attitudes toward the city, Fockler said.

Memphis opened the FedExForum, repurposed The Pyramid for Bass Pro Shops, helped renovate Overton Square, kept up Beale Street for tourism, extended the Green Line bike trail, and lately renovated Shelby Farms park and completed Big River Crossing, a boardwalk over the Mississippi River.

Chronicle of Philanthropy released its study of charitable giving in October but has not raised national attention as it did with the 2014 study, Fockler said.

According to a report compiled by Fockler’s group, the Chronicle of Philanthropy determined donations to all charitable causes from the nearly 400,000 families in metro Memphis totaled 5.6 percent of gross personal income over the last year, up from 5.1 percent in 2014.

Salt Lake City was rated first in 2014 at 5.4 percent of income going to charitable causes, and placed second in the current study at 5.5 percent. Cities in next three rankings did not change places from 2014 to 2017. Those metro areas are Birmingham, 5.4 percent in the current study; Atlanta, 4.6 percent; Nashville, 4 percent.