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Although Colorado residents continue to give billions on a yearly basis to charities, they still are far behind residents of other states in their percentage of giving, local and state officials said today in Denver.

“Colorado has the fifth-highest income in the nation, yet residents in 35 states give a higher percentage of their income to charity,” said Charley Shimanski, president and chief executive of the Colorado Nonprofit Association.

Total charitable giving in Colorado was a generous $3.8 billion for 2005, yet Coloradans have donated 7 percent less than the national average during the last six years, he said.

At a press conference at Denver’s Samaritan House attended by Gov. Bill Ritter and officials of Catholic Charities and Mile High United Way, Shimanski said that if Colorado as a whole increased its giving by 7 percent — to meet the national average — it would result in an “astounding additional $243 million in charitable giving.”

Shimanski noted that in Colorado, households with incomes under $50,000 give a substantially higher percentage of their income to charity, compared with those having incomes between $50,000 and $100,000.

“If those of us in these income brackets match the generosity of their fellow citizens, they can help fight the growing gap between the immense needs of the nonprofits in our state and the financial resources available to them,” Shimanski said.

The press conference today unveiled the first statewide study ever undertaken of philanthropic giving in Colorado. The report uses tax data from 2005, released just weeks ago by the Internal Revenue Service.

According to the study by the Colorado Nonprofit Association, Coloradans in 2005 gave a record $3.8 billion in charitable gifts, a 13 percent increase over the $3.4 billion recorded the previous year.

Among the findings: