About 85% of affluent households in the U.S. gave to charity last year, which is 3% fewer than in 2020. The average amount they gave also fell from $43,195 in 2020 to $34,917 in 2022.
This data is from a biennial survey out this week from Bank of America (a Marketplace underwriter), in partnership with Indiana University.
The drop in donations now follows a surge in generosity back in 2020.
“I think the need was very apparent and the opportunities to see how your gift could make a difference, it was very visible,” said Una Osili, an economist with the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University and lead researcher on this survey.
Now, the pandemic has receded from the news. So, Osili pointed out, people aren’t constantly reminded of the need to donate. Add in high inflation and a volatile stock market, even affluent households are growing more cautious.
“Especially around charitable giving decisions, which — at some level — are discretionary,” she said.
The well-off are still giving more than they did before the pandemic, and about 37% of them volunteer, which is a rebound from 2020.
“Volunteering, in many respects, is a gateway to giving,” said Dianne Chipps Bailey, the national philanthropic strategy executive at Bank of America, and one of the people behind the survey.
When people start contributing not just money, but also time, networks and brain space, they get more attached to a cause, according to Jen Shang, a philanthropic psychologist with the Institute for Sustainable Philanthropy.
“When people give in that way, they become part of the community. So they become part of the ‘we,’” said Shang.
When that happens, Shang said that donors are more likely to think of philanthropy not just as giving, but as receiving. And they’re more likely to stay with it too.
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