Amid the crush of the pandemic last year, the share of affluent households — those with a net worth of $1 million or more or an annual income of $200,000 or more — that gave to charity held steady at 90 percent, the same as three years earlier, according to a new study from Bank of America and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
Of those donors, 21 percent made cash or in-kind donations specifically in response to the pandemic, according to the survey.
In terms of overall giving, not just pandemic related, 86 percent of affluent Americans maintained or increased their giving last year.
Looking ahead, 74 percent of affluent donors do not expect their philanthropic behavior to change as a result of the pandemic, while 20 percent expect to direct more giving to specific causes. .
Charitable organizations that provide basic needs, such as food, shelter, and health services, benefited the most, with 37 percent of wealthy donors boosting their giving to these kinds of groups in response to the pandemic. Fifty-six percent of wealthy donors maintained the same level of giving to these kinds of groups.
Meanwhile, only 6 percent of wealthy donors increased their giving to arts and cultural institutions as a result of the pandemic.
The results were even more bleak for higher education; only 4 percent of wealthy donors increased their giving as a result of the pandemic.
The results were drawn from a January survey of 1,626 U.S. households with a net worth of $1 million or more (excluding their primary home) or an annual household income of $200,000 or more, or both.
Una Osili, associate dean for research and international programs at the Lilly School, said the survey results overall show that most wealthy donors either held steady in their giving amid the pandemic or increased it, especially for human-services nonprofits.
As for higher education and the arts, “the message there was consistency, not so much increase,“ Osili said.
A spokeswoman for the Lilly school said the findings released Thursday are selected results, focused on pandemic-related giving, that will be part of a broader study of giving by the affluent that will be released in the fall of 2021.
Other findings about affluent households from the study:
- 30 percent volunteered last year.
- 90 percent of those that increased their giving for basic needs directed their gifts to local organizations, 35 percent gave to U.S. organizations outside their communities, and 15 percent gave internationally.
- 83 percent of donors to arts and cultural organizations gave unrestricted gifts; the figure was 75 percent for health and medical groups, and 74 percent for education.
