State Of Caring Index Measures Capacity.

Donors in Minnesota are the most caring, New Mexico the least caring and the most improved are in Louisiana.

Those measures are from a Dow Jones-type index developed by the United Way of America called the "State of Caring Index." It is an index of key social indicators at national and state levels covering the years 1988-1998. It's designed to measureAmericans' caring for one another or the capacity of Americans to care for one another, said Betty Beene, outgoing president and chief executive officer of UWA.

Unlike the Dow Jones Industrial Index, however, there is a maximum point to the State of Caring Index. If this were a perfect world, the index would reach the maximum score of 1,000. After a low point of 482 in 1993, the SCI rose to its high water mark of 536 in 1998, the last year for which data is reported. No individual state scored lower than 298 or higher than 701 during the years covered.

The index is comprised of 32 individual indicators, which reflect data gathered from numerous sources, including federal and state government agencies and other nonprofits. Economic indicators were weighted more heavily than the five other component parts, indicative of UWA's view that poverty has the most impact on the country's social health.

The State of Caring shows more than the impact merely of dollars and influence of a local United Way and is not a report card of UW effectiveness. The indicators measure economic and financial well being (six indicators and 24 percent of index), education (eight indicators, 20 percent), health (eight indicators, 20 percent), voluntarism/charity/civic engagement (five indicators, 20 percent), safety (two indicators, 10 percent) and natural environment/other (three indicators, 6 percent).

Among the states, Minnesota was shown to be the most caring, according to the State of Caring metrics. New Mexico ranked at the bottom. Louisiana, which ended the period in 47th place, showed the most improvement during the period.

Though UWA has spoken of developing a similar index for the major metropolitan areas as well, not all the indicators are measured at this time for each city. Even at the state level some of the national-level data had to be used where state-level data was unavailable.

"This new resource helps communities and their leaders better understand the cross currents at work in our society and can help them develop a results-oriented agenda that will have an impact on people's lives," stated Beene. The index can also aid United Ways in their role as community conveners "to focus on the most important social and health and human service issues our communities face."

The State of Caring Index will likely be the final large initiative for Beene, who has been touting the concept since 1999 and will depart at the end of January.