Riots, fires, floods and earthquakes. And now, a plague of stinginess?

There it is in black and white, a list: 50 areas ranked in order of charitable giving per capita. At the top, Minneapolis, Atlanta and Columbus, Ohio. And way down at the bottom--well, two from the bottom, at No. 48--is Los Angeles.

We've got more rich people than any region except New York. But we give less per capita than areas with far less wealth, according to a recent survey by the Chronicle of Philanthropy. On average, people here gave $7 each to United Way in 1992, compared to $32 in Columbus.

The study, the first conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based biweekly, focused on donations in 1992 and 1993 to 10 major nonprofit organizations including the Boy Scouts, YMCA and Red Cross, plus charitable contributions to a broad range of nonprofits by local foundations and corporations.

In the survey, the Los Angeles metropolitan area included all of Los Angeles County except Long Beach.

Are we really a metropolis of Scrooges?

To be sure, like any best and worst list, the survey is a subjective thing, just one of many possible arrangements of statistics--and open to challenge.

Indeed, local philanthropists say the rankings do not reflect the real generosity here. Angelenos, they say, tend to give to small, specialized organizations not included in the Chronicle's study. And they say burgeoning immigrant communities tend to give in ways the survey does not include--such as contributing to churches or to needy relatives.

But the same local experts say the study reflects a stark reality: It's hard to raise money here.

And they say things are getting worse: pledges to the local United Way dropped 25% last year to $64 million. The same problem afflicts other nonprofit organizations across the region.

The recession is cited as a major cause. The dilemma for fund-raisers is that as people lose their jobs, they are transformed from donors to recipients of charity, swelling demand as funding shrinks.

At the same time, private philanthropy is taking on a bigger share of the burden of providing essential social services because of government cutbacks.

But the roots of the problem, say fund-raising veterans, go far deeper than the economic climate.

Leaders of local nonprofit organizations offer a number of other reasons for the charity shortfall: