Don Brunell-Focus is on private donors as need grows

With all the class warfare these days, “rich” has become a four-letter word. To hear some tell it, high-income earners are greedy misers who don’t pay their “fair share.”

Well, not quite.

When it comes to taxes, the IRS reports that, in 2009, the latest year figures are available; the top 1 percent earned 17 percent of all income and paid 37 percent of federal income taxes.

As for contributing to charity, Americans are a generous people. According to the Urban Institute’s Center on Nonprofits and Philanthropy, private donors contributed $202 billion to charities in 2010. The Chronicle of Phila...