Our region has higher levels of registered voters and higher voter turnout than the state or the nation. Our voter registration rates have been consistently higher than the state by several percentage points for every year since 2000. Similar to the national trend, voter registration in our region increased for the 2008 Presidential election between senators Barack Obama and John McCain, with 83% of residents registering to vote. Our residents not only register in greater numbers, but more importantly show up to the polls and vote in greater proportions than voting age residents of the state or the nation.Charitable giving fell from 2004 to 2006, and the region lags behind the state and the nation in both average annual charitable gifts and giving as a percentage of income. The average annual charitable gift in the region, when adjusted for inflation, fell from $3,300 in 2004 to $3,100 in 2006. This is below the average annual gift in New York State of $5,000 and the national average of almost $4,400. Monroe County leads the area with an average annual charitable donation of almost $3,300. Residents in the region spent 2.7% of their income on charitable giving, a slight decline from 2004 and less than the state and national rates.
Both the United Way and the Community Foundation experienced reductions in the number of donors and total contributions from 2000 to 2009. The Great Recession beginning in 2008 was an obvious factor, and the foundation in particular saw a big decline in 2008, but the downward trend began early in the decade. Employee participation in the United Way has fallen nationwide, reflecting in part, the shift from a manufacturing to a service economy where salaries are lower and where the United Way is less of a corporate tradition. In addition, competition for the charitable dollar is on the rise, and younger workers are not as committed to large organized charities as their predecessors. Locally, the United Way's donor base fell from 168,000 donors in 2000 to 99,000 in 2009, and its contributions declined by 36% after adjusting for inflation (21% in actual dollars). The Community Foundation's donor base also dropped over the same period, from 3,700 in 2000 to 3,300 in 2009, but the 2009 figure reflects a one-year increase of 28%. Donations fell by 84% after adjusting for inflation (80% in actual dollars) from 2000 to 2009.
People volunteer in our region more frequently and in more positions of leadership than in the nation. Nearly 65% of the region's residents reported volunteering at least once in 2006, an increase of 12 percentage points from 2000. The proportion of volunteers and the rate of increase in local volunteerism both exceed national figures. Moreover, people who volunteer in our region do so more frequently — with 18% volunteering 24 or more times in a year and more assuming leadership roles than in the nation. The regional rate for blacks in volunteer leadership positions nearly doubled to 19% in 2006, comparable with the national rate.
Other Highlights:
In 2000 and 2006, the Rochester Area Community Foundation commissioned Social Capital Surveys for residents in six counties to gauge our levels of trust, tolerance, and involvement with others. Highlights from the 2006 survey show that we are more tolerant of other people's views, we trust our neighbors less than in 2000, and our region has proportionately more people involved with arts and political organizations than in the nation generally.