A new generation of givers in the Washington, D.C. area are giving more, choosing charities close to home and developing creative ways to "harness the wealth of the high-tech economy," the Washington Post reports.

This assessment of Washington-area philanthropy is based on a new report by the Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers (WRAG), which claims that giving to charitable causes by taxpayers in the District of Columbia and surrounding communities in Maryland and Virginia is 46 percent higher than the national average.

Taxpayers in these three regions gave an average 3.9 percent of their incomes to charity, well above the national average of 2.7 percent. Maryland residents were the most generous, giving 4.6 percent of their income, while suburban Virginia residents gave an average 3.3 percent.

Total giving from all sources including corporations and foundations is more than $6.2 billion, according to the "A Region of Givers" report (which requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader software to view).

The Washington group used data from the Urban Institute and other organizations to calculate individual giving from tax data and other sources, the Post reports. The giving survey represents the start of a 10-year plan to raise local giving and identify which nonprofit groups lack support.

The report found that area foundations awarded $771 million in grants last year, and these organizations increased their assets by more than $10 billion in six years.

Kae Dakin, WRAG's executive director, said one of the goals of her organization is to find innovative ways to educate wealthy young people how to invest charitably. She says her organization will tailor its approaches to the styles and passions of the region's newly wealthy.

One example is America Online, where many employees want to give something back to their community but don’t know how. So both the company and its employees developed Giving Tree Circles (named after Shel Silverstein’s book, "The Giving Tree"): groups of employees who want to support similar causes, such as protecting green space or making the Internet more helpful for people with disabilities, the newspaper reports.

Veronica Parke, head of Martha’s Table, a food kitchen in Northwest Washington, says this kind of direct involvement is key to giving wisely.

"The definition of compassion is finding out what would be most helpful to others and then trying to help out in that way," Parke told the Post.

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