Political Gifts Don’t Hamper Philanthropy, Says Study

Title: “Giving in an Election Year: How Political Giving Impacts Nonprofit Support”

Organization: Blackbaud

Summary: Contrary to a belief widely held by charity fundraisers, donors who give to political campaigns during a presidential election year do not on average cut back on their charitable giving during that period.

Blackbaud, a fundraising-software company, compared Federal Election Commission data with contributions to 143 national charities from just over 21 million households. Households that gave to political campaigns in 2012 donated 0.9 percent more money to charities that year than they did in 2011, the study found. By contrast, other households cut their charitable gifts by 2.1 percent in 2012 compared to the previous year.

Among the findings:

• Donors ages 25 to 34 who made political contributions were most likely to give more to charities in an election year, increasing their contributions by nearly 11 percent.
• Donors 75 and older did trim their charitable giving even if they made political gifts, but political donors cut their philanthropy by less — 0.4 percent — than those who didn’t give to a political candidate. People who made only charitable gifts scaled down their contributions by 4.5 percent.
• Households that made less than $50,000 were most likely to increase their giving if they also supported a political campaign. Those donors gave 5.3 percent more to charity in 2012 than in 2011.
• Of all causes, human services was most likely to benefit from the generosity of political donors. Those donors gave 14.5 percent more to human-service charities in 2012 than they did the previous year.