By Angela White

The Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University just released the second part of its Women Give 2010 research.  You can also review my October blog post if you’d like to find out more about the first part of the report.

This second research release is entitled Causes Women Support and asks the question, “Are there differences between male and female single-headed households across all subsectors of charitable giving?”  

To answer this question, this study used the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study of 2,500 households to examine the likelihood and amount of giving across 11 areas of charity. This is the only national study that examines all areas of giving across single-headed households.

So, what did the study find out? Among key points, the results show that female single-headed households are more likely than any of the male single-headed households to give to

1. religion,
2. combined purposes eg: United Way, community foundations, etc.,
3. helping people in need,
4. health care,
5. education,
6. youth or family,
7. community, and
8. international.

Female single-headed households are as likely as their male counterparts to give to arts & culture, environment, and other.

The study also found that the top five areas in which female-headed households are significantly more likely than their male counterparts to give are the international, community, religion, health care, and youth & family areas.

Why?  The study’s summary report gives this insight:

While more research is needed to assess why the top five areas resonate more deeply with women (international, community, religious institutions, health care, and youth and family), a common thread may be connectivity. From previous research, we know that women are drawn to causes and organizations with which they or family members are connected or to which they can closely relate. Perhaps the connection with these types of charitable organizations is deeper and thus reflected in women’s likelihood to make philanthropic investments.

I believe that this research illustrates the opportunity we have to engage both women and men in connecting their charitable giving to their passions. What do you think?

As a national speaker and faculty member of the Women’s Philanthropy Institute Speakers Bureau, I applaud these important initiatives to increase the understanding of why women give in our industry.

By Ted Grossnickle

A wealth of free information is available for download this week from the Center on Philanthropy at IU and Bank of America Merrill Lynch. 

The release of their 2010 Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy provides details of the giving habits of high net worth households in the US including why they give, why they stop giving and how you can get them to give more.

The 75-page report is chock full of valuable information, but the more skimmable 10 page key findings also provides some great insights into the giving of high net worth households, including:

• Average charitable giving dropped 34.9 percent in 2009, after adjusting for inflation.
• Some charitable sectors saw increases in giving, including arts, environment/animal care, and international causes.
• Others saw significant declines, including 63.7 percent for health organizations, education and combined purpose organizations (such as United Way, United Jewish Appeal, or Catholic Charities)
• High Net worth households were more prone to give to general operation funds or a particular program than they were to support capital gifts (such as construction projects or equipment purchase) or endowment giving.

We have heard from donors, and this research study also certainly supports our experience, that high net worth donors are concerned about the uncertainty in the current tax situation. 

The study reports that 67 percent of respondents indicated they would somewhat or dramatically decrease giving if income tax deductions were taken away.  Repeal of the estate tax would induce 43 percent of respondents to somewhat or dramatically increase their charitable bequests.

Wanting to lure more wealthy donors to support your charity? 

When determining where to give, high net worth households look for sound business and operational practices, acknowledgement of contributions, appropriate overhead expenditures, protection of personal information, and full financial disclosure.

Wondering why you may have lost some high net worth supporters last year? 

The most frequent reason donors cited they stopped charitable support for an organization was after being too frequently solicited or asked for an inappropriate gift amount. This begs the question of how strategic you are being in your donor solicitation and if you are doing the appropriate level of research on donation requests.

I encourage you to download the report and put this information to use in your own planning arsenal.

Thank you to the Center on Philanthropy and Bank of America Merrill Lynch for this great addition to the philanthropic industry’s body of knowledge.

By Angela E. White

Today, the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University released a key set of research findings about the gender role in philanthropy.  Women Give 2010 was received with strong praise and interest from the news media, including stories by the Associated Press and a front page story in USA Today. 

What’s all the fuss about? The study examined giving by single men and women across five income groups, ranging roughly from $23,000 to $100,000+ a year, controlling for factors that affect philanthropic behavior such as income, wealth, education, race, number of children, religion, and health of household. The results show that women, when compared to men,  across nearly every income level are MORE LIKELY TO GIVE and GIVE MORE than their male counterparts – in many cases, nearly twice as much.

As a frequent speaker for Women’s Philanthropy  Institute (WPI), I have discussed  women’s giving patterns with a broad range of professionals and donors in the philanthropic community.  And, as counsel to Women’s Fund of Central Indiana, I have seen the transformational power of women’s philanthropy at work.  My colleagues at Johnson, Grossnickle, and Associates (JGA) and I are committed to the importance of changing the way we think about women and philanthropy.  Women Give 2010 provides just the kind of research that will continue to strengthen the dialog on this important topic.

I anticipate more insights to come on women’s roles in philanthropy over the next several months.  More discussion and insights will emerge next week in Chicago as I attend the “Upholding Our Half: Making the Case for Women’s Philanthropy,” a conference in Chicago October 28 – 29, jointly sponsored by WPI and CASE.  And, to continue the conversation, JGA is proud to be a sponsor of the 2011 Women’s Philanthropy Institute’s Symposium “Women World Wide: Leading through Philanthropy” being convened in Chicago next March.

I will do my best to share with you the learnings and trends that emerge as we come together to focus on women’s issues in philanthropy, but I also hope you will join me in attending these wonderful events and discussing the issues in forums like this blog.

By Ted Grossnickle

Back in April of this year (wow, it’s been six months now) JGA and Achieve, LLC announced results of the Millennial Donor Study — and the response to that donor research since then has been unlike anything either firm has seen.

Perhaps we should not be surprised given the topic and interest in philanthropy around the nation in this millennium! Since April there have been more than twenty blog postings about the study results — and those are only the ones we’ve managed to catch.

What surprises me is the continuing circulation of the research even now. There are recent comments regarding the applicability of it to fundraising by national political parties in this midterm election season and a posting this past week on the Social Edge blog forum from the Skoll Foundation – affiliated with the founder of eBay- about the importance of young donor engagement for social entrepreneurs.

At this rate, I expect the results of our research to show up in Christmas cards!!

We believe it is time to seriously rethink our perceptions about younger people in philanthropy and volunteerism.

For too many years, there has been the assumption that “they’re too busy,” or “they don’t have resources yet,” or “they’re just not interested,” or – perhaps worst- “we can’t expect them to engage with causes the way everyone else does.”

All of these are pretty much incorrect — at least according to our research (http://www.millennialdonors.com/) and to the many people who have followed our Study.

I can tell you this — there is more to come. JGA and Achieve are partnering to conduct a second round of nonprofit research in this area and you can expect more results during the spring of 2011. 

Want to be a part of the next Millenial Donors study?  We are in search of 10 institutions to participate in the study of young donor attitudes and engagement trends.  If you are interested in participating, please contact Joanna Nixon at Achieve or download the Request for Interest application.

by Angela E. White

Want to know what 15,000 donors said could influence them to be more generous in 2010 than they had originally planned?

Want to know how these donors are feeling about the recession and its impact on their philanthropy?

Want to know if direct mail campaigns are dead?

These are just a few of the questions addressed in the latest research released by Penelope Burk, President of Cygnus Applied Research, Inc., in her new study The Cygnus Donor Survey … Where Philanthropy is Headed in 2010.  

You can review an executive summary and purchase the full report at http://www.cygresearch.com/.  As always, Penelope provides us with very interesting and helpful information to set the stage for our work.

For example, her research shows that the impact of the recession on philanthropy seems to be moderating; however, among the top 10% of select donors, 17% said that they would give less in 2010.

We know that a decrease in giving from our most generous donors has a large impact on our overall fundraising success and thus may indicate that we will not see our total giving bounce back right away.

Now that we are 7 months through the year, how do your philanthropic results compare to last year? Review Penelope Burk’s latest research and see how you compare to national donor trends.

Learn something interesting in the study? Discuss it with Angela and others by posting in the JGA comments section.