February 13, 2017 | Read Time: 1 minute
Title: “How Couples Give”
Organization: Fidelity Charitable
Summary: Eight in 10 donors with a spouse or other live-in partner discuss which charities to support and how much money to direct to each one, according to a survey of couples with donor-advised funds. Yet many couples don’t consult each other about long-term charitable planning or which assets to direct toward their philanthropy.
Fifty-two percent said they make decisions about their overall charitable giving budget together. However, 64 percent said they don’t consult their spouse or partner on which assets to contribute to their donor-advised fund.
Among other findings:
- Sixty percent of couples who discuss their philanthropy together said they agree about their giving decisions, and only 11 percent said they are at odds about their charitable choices.
- Nearly half of women said they make most of the decisions when it comes to which nonprofits they and their partner or spouse support, while two-thirds of men said they share such decisions with their spouse or partner.
- When deciding how much money to give to a charity, 65 percent of men said they share that choice equally with their spouse or partner, while 44 percent of women said they are the primary decision maker about how much to direct toward a nonprofit.
- Women in the survey said 33 percent of their household’s charitable dollars go to groups of primary importance to them, while only 23 percent of men said so.
