Giving to Faith-Based Nonprofits Likely to Hold Steady or Increase, Survey Says

Eighty-five percent of people who gave at least $1,000 in 2018 or 2019 to a faith-based nonprofit say they expect to give the same amount or more this year as they did last year, according to a new survey.

North Carolina-based consultancy DickersonBakker collected 1,079 responses to the online survey, which has a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The median amount respondents had given previously was $20,000.

Sixty percent said they expect to give the same amount this year as in 2019; 25 percent said their giving will increase, and 15 percent said it will decrease.

Only 8 percent said they plan to shift their giving to other causes or nonprofits because of the Covid-19 pandemic; the rest said their recipients will stay the same.

About half of donors said they made special contributions in March through June 2020 in response to the pandemic, and 71 percent of those donors said they consider that money “over-and-above their regular giving.”

The report concludes: “Overall giving to faith-based nonprofits is likely to hold steady or even increase through the remainder of 2020.”