Donors Were Asked What Charity They’d Support if They Could Pick Only One. Half Chose the Same 20 Groups.

When donors are asked what charity they would support if they could give to just one, 54 percent selected one of only 20 organizations, according to a new study.

The findings show that a small number of national and international groups hold a privileged place in the philanthropy of American donors.

Even though they were not prompted with a list of charities to choose from, the respondents most often picked a brand-name group such as the American Humane Society, Doctors Without Borders, Feeding America, Goodwill Industries, Planned Parenthood, the United Way, and Wounded Warrior Project.

Among the 20 were five that were particularly popular. Thirty-six percent of donors picked one the following: Alsac/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the American Cancer Society, American Red Cross, Salvation Army, or Unicef.

Donors preferred large organizations, underscoring the challenges small charities face from well-resourced competitors. Only 23 percent picked a favorite charity with annual revenue of $50 million or less; only 5 percent picked one with revenue of $1 million or less. Thirty-eight percent picked a charity with annual revenue of $1 billion or more.

The favorite charities cited by donors had a median annual revenue — including donations, government support, and earned income — of $399 million.

A bright spot for small organizations: The top donors, those who gave $2,000 or more during the 12 months preceding the survey, were most likely to pick a favorite charity with revenue under $50 million.

A thousand people who actively support charities completed the online survey by Grey Matter Research, a consumer market-research company, and Op4G, a research panel, both of which focus on the philanthropic world.

Health Is No. 1 Cause

Donors overwhelmingly favored organizations that work globally, as opposed to those that work exclusively stateside: Sixty percent of donors chose a favorite charity that supports programs internationally. However, only 2 percent picked a nonprofit that works exclusively overseas. Political conservatives, parents with children at home, and Christians were most likely to favor global charities.

By cause, health-related charities were the most commonly picked as favorites, cited by nearly one in three donors.

Among other findings:

Impact matters. The three most commonly cited reasons for selecting a particular charity as a favorite were the organization’s results (32 percent), the donor’s trust (28 percent), and the donor’s personal connection to the cause or charity (22 percent).

Overhead spending doesn’t matter so much. Eight-four percent of donors picked a charity that spends 10 to 29 percent of revenue on administrative costs, according to that charity’s informational tax forms. The average “overhead ratio” for the charities donors favored was just under 19 percent. But only 12 percent of donors said that using their money efficiently was the key factor in why they picked their favorite charity, and a February report by the same researchers discovered a charity’s spending on administrative costs had little impact on giving.

Religion’s influence is muted. Eighty-two percent of people who attend religious services at least monthly picked a favorite charity that was not faith-based.