High-Dollar Donors Remain Confident During Pandemic

Big-dollar donors are more likely to give during the pandemic than other donors, according to a new report from the polling firm Campbell Rinker.

The study uses data collected during a Campbell Rinker confidence survey in July with about 650 donors, along with additional data collected from a 200-person subset of those respondents — donors who gave more than $2,500 to charities in 2019. Among that group, 70 percent said they expect to give at least the same amount this year as in 2019, while 18 percent said they expect to give more this year than last year, and 12 percent said they expected to give less.

The survey has a margin of error of plus-or-minus 6.7 percentage points.

Among donors who gave less than $2,500 in 2019, 64 percent said they plan to give at least the same amount as in 2019, 11 percent said they expect to give more , and 25 percent less.

These higher-dollar donors said would most likely support specific programs. Roughly 75 percent said they would be somewhat, very, or extremely likely to consider donations tied to specific programs. Unrestricted gifts and general operating support were less popular. Only 55 percent said they would be somewhat, very, or extremely likely to support requests for unrestricted funding.

“In a time of a pandemic, it would seem more organizations need unrestricted support, and it would seem to me that these donors —being high-level, fairly confident in their own giving — it kind of surprised me they are not more in tune with those kinds of needs at an organization,” said Dirk Rinker, president of Campbell Rinker.

The participating donors are confident in their own ability to manage economic disruptions. Eighty percent said they are under no economic stress, and only 13 percent said their situation is “mildly challenging.” About 22 percent said their income had increased over the past year, compared with 17 percent who had seen their income decline.

According to the survey, higher-dollar donors consider local charities to be the most important to them. Locally focused charities received an average score of 4.1 out of 5 points when asked to rank the importance of different charity types. Internationally focused charities scored the lowest , averaging a score of three points out of five.