The pandemic, racial reckoning, and other crises of the past year may have closed some of the gender gap in giving as men are making philanthropy a higher priority, a study released on Wednesday by Fidelity Charitable finds.
A commitment to charitable giving grew among both men and women, but men are getting closer to women’s level of commitment, according to the study of donors who had given at least $1,000 in 2020 and 2019.
Before the pandemic, 75 percent of women said charitable giving was an important part of their lives compared with 69 percent of men who made that claim. Now 81 percent of men say that charitable giving is important to them, bringing their focus on charity closer to that of the 84 percent of women who said giving to charity was important to them.
Men and women reported differing giving motivations, however. Women cited a deep desire to make a difference in the world as their main motivation for giving to charity, while men said they are more motivated to give out of a sense of obligation or personal benefit, such as tax incentives.
In addition, men in the study were more likely than women to say that they gave notably more in 2020 than they did in 2019. Among those who increased their giving in 2020, men were more likely to cite financial or tax reasons for doing so, such as offsetting capital gains on appreciated assets (14 percent of men vs. 6 percent of women) or volatility in the stock market (11 percent of men vs. 1 percent of women).
The study showed women are more focused than men on addressing issues related to immediate needs like providing access to food, shelter, and medical care while men are more likely to focus on finding cures for diseases or economic development.
For example, 45 percent of women said hunger was one of the top challenges the world needs to solve compared with 34 percent of men. Meanwhile, 34 percent of women versus 27 percent of men said access to basic health services was a top challenge, and 22 percent of women compared with 16 percent of men said access to shelter and affordable housing was one of the top challenges.
Generational Change
Generational differences also continued to be important factors in how donors approach their philanthropy. Half of millennial woman said the pandemic made charitable giving a bigger priority in their lives, compared with 31 percent of Generation X women and 25 percent of baby boomer women.
The study also found that millennials of either gender are more likely than donors of other age groups to give through social-media platforms or by supporting socially responsible businesses.
The Fidelity Charitable Women and Giving Study was conducted by the research firm Artemis Strategy Group. In 2020, the firm surveyed 3,055 adults in the United States who donated at least $1,000 to charity in 2019 and followed up in January 2021 by surveying 830 donors who had given at least $1,000 in 2020.