Speedway Children’s Charities Distributes More Than $2 Million To Local Non-Profits

Speedway Children's Charities brightened the holidays for local non-profits by distributing more than $2 million to the organizations at a Speedway event Monday.

According to SCC officials, 2023 was a record year for giving.  The Charlotte chapter will distribute $1.78 million in grants to 94 area charities, while the SCC's new North Wilkesboro chapter will distribute $215,000.

SCC volunteers and staff welcomed more than 450 children and charity representatives for an evening of cookies and hot chocolate and a tour through the nearly 5 million Christmas lights that illuminate Speedway Christmas.

“It warms my heart that SCC was able to make a big impact and it's amazing to see,” said Speedway Children’s Charities Chairman Marcus Smith. “We are blessed to contribute to so many amazing organizations and I appreciate all of the hard work they do to make a difference in these children’s lives.”

SCC raises money throughout the year through a variety of fundraising events, ranging from its annual black-tie Gala to 50/50 raffles, charity hot laps and more.

Nationally, SCC supports non-profits in 11 communities across the United States.  In a news release, officials said SCC will distribute more than $4.2 million to charities this year.  The organization has distributed more than $69 million to non-profits since 1982.

A new study by SmartAsset ranked the most generous counties in North Carolina. And Mecklenburg County ranked near the top of the list. To create this list researchers measured how much money people donate as a percentage of their net income and the proportion of people in each county who donate to charitable causes.

View the most generous counties in North Carolina below:

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  1.43%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 9.77%

Charitable County Index: 31.39

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Iredell+County,+NC/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x88515a5200f53299:0xf4eb20ac5d2dd7e0

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  1.56%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 9.78%

Charitable County Index: 32.21

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Moore+County,+NC/@35.2595994,-79.5478465,10.75z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x89ab5777cbccf3dd:0x9b655a0ffb000e60!8m2!3d35.3674493!4d-79.4703885

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  2.23%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 8.35%

Charitable County Index: 32.86

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Watauga+County,+NC/@36.2513113,-81.8297325,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x8850d0d7e9925b87:0x32fc062a92d6a436!8m2!3d36.1941825!4d-81.734942

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  1.86%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 9.35%

Charitable County Index: 33.01

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Polk+County,+NC/@35.296061,-82.2311672,11.75z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x8859dfe02c8a8d85:0xaf614048eb2dc72!8m2!3d35.2686842!4d-82.1713632

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  1.87%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 10.88%

Charitable County Index: 36.60

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Durham+County,+NC/@36.051289,-78.9973976,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89ace93cc6aed62d:0x242454152e905754!8m2!3d36.0221805!4d-78.9031279

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  1.73%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 12.75%

Charitable County Index: 41.42

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Wake+County,+NC/@35.7973409,-78.9051702,10z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89ac88ccfabb3d93:0xa41a40b5c635c72c!8m2!3d35.8031909!4d-78.5660852

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  2.18%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 12.13%

Charitable County Index: 41.42

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Mecklenburg+County,+NC/@35.2579421,-81.0843444,10z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x8856abc96599e1e5:0x19f6c12dbcdbcbed!8m2!3d35.2632655!4d-80.8543847

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  2.00%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 13.14%

Charitable County Index: 42.64

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Union+County,+NC/@35.011111,-80.6987602,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x8855cd4d43af5f23:0x9ba654f3f53bc105!8m2!3d34.9338651!4d-80.543845

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  2.15%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 13.14%

Charitable County Index: 43.54

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Orange+County,+NC/@36.0521855,-79.2477751,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89acdd65dbd3e811:0x49b749c57542ea3e!8m2!3d36.0263022!4d-79.1096901

Contributions as Percentage of Income:  1.79%

Percentage of Returns Itemizing Charitable Contributions: 14.67%

Charitable County Index: 45

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Chatham+County,+NC/@35.6958569,-79.371034,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x89acbc9393c41479:0xda597fa59834ed64!8m2!3d35.7211289!4d-79.17807

(From Smart Asset)

To find the most generous places, we compared two factors in each county: the amount of money people donate as a percentage of their net income, and the proportion of people who made charitable donations.

To determine the amount of money that people donate as a percentage of their income, we first calculated the net income for everyone in each county. To do this, we looked at tax return data and accounted for federal, state and local taxes paid. We also accounted for deductible entries, including mortgage interest, mortgage points and mortgage insurance payments. We then divided each county's total charitable donations by its total net income to see the amount of money residents in each county have donated relative to their income.

Next, we measured the total number of individual tax returns that show charitable contributions and divided that by the total number of individual tax returns in each county. This gave us the proportion of people in each county who make charitable donations.

We then indexed and equally weighted the two factors to yield our Most Charitable Places Index.