Savage/Meléndez & Associates, LLC

A Review of 2011 Study of High Net Worth Women’s Philanthropy

A new 2011 Study of High Net Worth Women’s Philanthropy, conducted by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University and sponsored by Bank of America Merrill Lynch, released December 12, 2011, explores what motivates women to give and how their attitudes toward giving is translated into generosity. The study’s key findings include:

Women spend more time than men on due diligence before making decisions about giving to a charitable organization.
Women are strategic in their charitable giving, with 78% creating an annual giving strategy and/or budget. As a comparison, about 25% of high net worth individuals have neither a giving strategy nor budget.
Personal experience with a nonprofit, and the organization’s ability to communicate its impact, are important factors for women when they make their charitable giving decisions.
Women want to be actively involved with an organization and its mission, with volunteering being among the most important motivations for women to give.
Women expect a deeper level of communication with the organizations they support and place greater importance than men on the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization and hearing about the impact of their gift.
80% of women donors expect that the nonprofit will honor their request for how the gift is used, and 45% expect that the organization will share with them the positive impact of their gift.
BUT women are more likely than men to stop giving to an organization they had previously supported whereas men tend to support the same causes year after year.

There are several important factors that motivate women’s giving and set them apart from their male counterparts. Women (82 percent) are more likely than men (71 percent) to be motivated to give when they are moved by how their gift can make a difference in the world, and because they want to set a good example for the next generation (women: 44 percent, men: 25 percent).

Involving high net worth individuals as volunteers allows them to give more of their time and talent to the organizations and causes they value. More than 87 percent of high net worth women report that they had volunteered, compared to about 78 percent of high net worth men. During their working years, wealthy women and men volunteer at similar levels, however, retired women (85 percent) volunteer notably more than retired men (72 percent).

The research explored the percentage of high net worth individuals who stopped giving to a nonprofit they previously supported and the reasons they discontinued their support. Women (49 percent) are more likely than men (41 percent) to stop giving to an organization they previously supported – with “too frequent solicitation/asked for inappropriate amount” cited as the top reason by both genders. Other reasons include their household circumstances having changed (women: 31 percent, men: 28 percent) and/or that the organization changed leadership or activities (29 percent for both).

For more about this fascinating study go to: http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/news/2011/12/pr-BOAMLHNWWomen.aspx