Nine in 10 affluent U.S. households gave to charities in 2020, according to the 2021 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy: Charitable Giving by Affluent Households, released this week.
Average giving to charities by affluent Americans increased by 48% last year to $43,195, up from $29,269 in 2017.
"Charitable activities last year and into this year reflect unwavering commitments by philanthropists to give in good times and bad, and to address societal issues as well as challenges faced in their local communities," Katy Knox, president of Bank of America Private Bank, said in a statement.
"We're also seeing a next generation of change-makers beginning to transform how giving gets done and philanthropy's role in society."
The study, a collaboration between Bank of America Private Bank and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI, is based on a survey conducted in January among a nationally representative random sample of 1,626 wealthy households, and includes in-depth analysis based on age, gender, race and sexual identity. The households in the study have a net worth of $1 million or more (excluding the value of their primary home) or an annual household income of $200,000 or more.
Key Findings
Affluent donors in the survey were about equally likely to base their giving decisions on issues as on organizations. This is a departure from previous studies in the series, in which clear majorities of affluent households reported that organizations drove their giving decisions or strategies.
Among donors aged 38 and younger, 55% said they are more focused on the issues or causes they consider most important, compared with 34% whose focus is on organizations.
Twenty-two percent of affluent households said they support social and racial justice causes through their giving, with 11% saying social justice was one of their top three most important cause/issue areas and 19% wanting to know more about this area.
The number of affluent donors who participate in sustainable/impact investing nearly doubled between 2017 and 2020. Not only that, 59% of these donors said their sustainable investing was in addition to their other charitable giving.
Just 5% of donors said that impact investing was in lieu of all other charitable giving.
According to the survey, 57% of donors gave via a nonprofit's website in 2020. Eighteen percent used digital tools such as GoFundMe and other crowdfunding platforms, and 17% used payment processing apps such as Zelle and Venmo.
Younger and diverse donors were more likely than others to use such channels for their giving. For example, 74% of Asian Americans gave via a nonprofit's website, while 31% of Black/African Americans used a payment processing app.
