As the country’s two major political parties kick off their nominating conventions, with the Republicans this week and the Democrats next week, nonprofit leaders might be worrying that the big money donated to the presidential campaigns will lead to smaller results in their organizations’ next fund-raising drives.
That’s understandable. According to American National Election Studies, a voter survey conducted by Stanford and the University of Michigan, 40 percent of Americans contribute to political candidates, parties, or PACs.
As the primary season concluded in mid-June, the Center for Responsive Politics reported that nearly $1.3 billion had been raised by individual campaigns and super PACs to support all the people who sought the Democrat and Republican nominations. President Obama and Mitt Romney raised and spent nearly $2.4 billion on their 2012 campaigns.
While these dollar amounts are substantial, campaign spending is tiny when compared with Americans’ philanthropic activity. According to “Giving USA 2016,” $373.25 billion was donated to nonprofits in 2015. Of that total, nearly $265 billion was provided by living Americans.
In addition, an analysis of data on political and charitable gifts from 2000 to 2010, conducted by my colleagues at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy for the Giving USA Foundation’s Spotlight newsletter, revealed that “charitable giving constitutes 98 percent or more of all charitable and political giving combined”.
The report concluded, “Despite the increase in political donations in recent years, charitable giving by American donors far exceeds the total amount political organizations receive from political donors of all kinds.”
Importantly, while donor motivations vary, research and data indicate that most people do not reduce their charitable giving in favor of political contributions in a presidential or any other election year.
That is why organizations shouldn’t hold back seeking money even as the fall campaign heats up.
In fact, “Giving USA”data reveals that charitable giving increased — even after adjusting for inflation — in seven of the last eight presidential election years. The only exception: 2008, at the beginning of the Great Recession.
While financial support for presidential or other political campaigns does not appear to cut into donations to charity, fundraisers can still benefit from knowing about the typical characteristics of political donors as they get ready to meet with prospective contributors.
For example, the Lilly School’s report notes that the older, better-educated, and economically better off the members of a household are, the more likely they are to contribute to a political candidate or party. Households with children under the age of 18 are less likely to financially support a political campaign.
Interestingly, geography matters. Residents in the U.S. Midwest and West are more likely to give money to a political candidate or cause. Rural denizens are less apt to donate politically.
Gender distinctions are also evident. A listing of the 2012 presidential campaign donations of $200 or more by the Center for Responsive Politics reveals that 62 percent of the donors were men and they contributed 65 percent of the campaign cash.
And yet the data on individual donors is also a reminder of how the number of contributors to political campaigns is relatively very small when compared with philanthropy.
Just under 550,000 Americans donated at least $200 to either Mr. Obama, Mr. Romney, or their parties and supporting organizations. Meanwhile, nearly 60 percent of Americans — in a nation of more than 300 million people — make charitable gifts each year, our Lilly School research has found. In fact, more Americans give than vote.
Perhaps you’ve already arrived for a meeting with a prospective donor and discovered that she has a yard sign for a political candidate on her front lawn. Or maybe you’ve concluded a donor meeting and in the parking lot you see a bumper sticker for a favored candidate on his car.
Fret not. Even if those signs reflect financial support for the candidate, the research shows that doesn’t get in the way of charitable giving. So keep asking.
Bill Stanczykiewicz directs the Fund Raising School at Indiana University’s Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
