SILVER SPRING, Md. — It's the season of giving, but the people of Silver Spring, Maryland, didn't wait until the holidays to give to causes important to them. According to the online fundraising website GoFundMe, Silver Spring is the most generous city in America.
Silver Spring took the No. 1 spot in the site's annual report, while some other cities in our region also made the top 10. Alexandria, Virginia, ranked No. 6 and Rockville, Maryland came in at No. 10. It's a bit of a drop in the rankings for Rockville. The city ranked No. 2 in 2019.
GoFundMe says the rankings are according to the number of donations per capita in cities with a populations greater than 50,000.
A year unlike any other, 2020 saw plenty of opportunities to give. Some of GoFundMe's top fundraisers this year included America's Food Fund. GoFundMe says gave over $44 million to feed America’s most vulnerable populations experiencing food insecurity made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic. Donations also poured in for frontline health care workers and causes of racial justice including the George Floyd Memorial Fund and the Justice for Breonna Taylor fund, which included more than 210,000 donations, according to GoFundMe.
The site says more than 150,000 fundraisers were started in 2020 for COVID-19 support, and about 60% of all fundraisers started on the site in the US were in support of small businesses and their employees.
For a more detailed breakdown, click here.