Wednesday is Nonprofit Day in Boerne and Kendall County, and both the city and county recognized the occasion through the signing of proclamations declaring as such. Both were signed last week during ceremonies at the courthouse and city hall, respectively.
And, as it turns out, the proclamations and recognition are highly appropriate as Kendall recently again was recognized by SmartAsset as the Texas county with the most generous residents when it comes to charitable causes and organizations.
“Nonprofits play a growing role in the social and economic strength of Kendall County,” Greater Boerne Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kim Blohm told The Star. “A strong, vibrant nonprofit community enhances and supports the quality of life of our growing region. … “Our area is lucky to have a wide range of nonprofits with everything from education, human and social services, healthcare, animal care, arts, humanities, environmental conservation and more.”
According to the SmartAsset study, the percentage of income donated by Kendall County residents to charitable organizations is among the highest of any county in the Lone Star State while also having the highest proportion of people who make charitable donations.
The county also ranked No. 1 in a similar study released in November 2020.
“Nonprofits have a direct economic impact through the residents they employ, the wages they pay and the purchases each organization and its employees make from local vendors,” Blohm said. “They provide needed and beneficial services to tens of thousands of individuals and families in Kendall County that they would otherwise be without. These services contribute to the overall health and well-being of area residents, including our youth, making them more employable, productive members of our community.
“Nonprofits also play a huge role in quality of life for those who live in our region by offering residents opportunities to enjoy entertainment, arts, events, natural spaces and much more.”
Methodology
“To find the most generous places, we compared two factors in each county: the amount of money people donate as a percentage of their net income, and the proportion of people who made charitable donations,” information from SmartAsset stated.
According to SmartAsset’s survey, Kendall County residents donate 2.21 percent of their incomes to charitable organizations, and their percentage of returns itemizing charitable contributions computes to 14.83 percent. That led to a charitable index of 47.87, which tops Texas.
To determine the amount of money that people donate as a percentage of their income, SmartAsset first calculated the net income for everyone in each county. To do this, it looked at tax return data and accounted for federal, state and local taxes paid. It also accounted for deductible entries, including mortgage interest, mortgage points and mortgage insurance payments. It then divided each county's total charitable donations by its total net income to see the amount of money residents in each county have donated relative to their income.
Next, SmartAsset measured the total number of individual tax returns that show charitable contributions and divided that by the total number of individual tax returns in each county. This gave it the proportion of people in each county who make charitable donations.
“We then indexed and equally weighted the two factors to yield our Most Charitable Places Index,” the information stated.
Rockwall County’s 49.74 number finished second. Bordering Gillespie and Comal counties ranked eighth and ninth, respectively, with scores of 35.0 and 33.72.
“Kendall County is one of the fastest-growing communities in both the state of Texas and the nation,” Blohm said. “With a rapid population increase comes a growing need for support services in our area. Nonprofits have contributed so much to quality of life in our community by creating opportunities for social connectedness and exposure to the arts, nature, educational opportunities and more.”
Blohm said the Boerne chamber’s membership stands at about 950 total members, and 135 of them are nonprofits.
SmartAsset is a financial technology company headquartered in New York City. The company publishes articles, guides, reviews, calculators and tools to help people make decisions about personal finance.
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