1 in 3 Wealthy Business Owners Plans to Give More in 2017, Study Says

Title: “2017 U.S. Trust Survey of High Net Worth Business Owners”

Organization: U.S. Trust

Summary: Nearly a third of affluent business owners plan to increase their philanthropy this year, according to a new study of 248 current and retired business owners. These findings line up with other recent studies of donors, with roughly the same share of respondents reporting that they intend to increase their giving in 2017.

The respondents who were surveyed own or have owned companies with an annual revenue of at least $1 million. The study was conducted by Phoenix Marketing International for U.S. Trust, the private wealth management arm of Bank of America, in January and February.

Among the findings:

• Sixty-eight percent of business owners, compared with 43 percent of people who don’t own businesses, say they come from a strong family tradition of giving back.
• However, they are less likely than non-business owners to give money to charity or volunteer: Forty-six percent of entrepreneurs surveyed said they make financial charitable gifts, compared with 78 percent of non-business owners. And 45 percent of owners said they volunteer, compared to 58 percent of non-owners.
• Thirty-one percent of current business owners serve on a charity board, and 11 percent serve on the board of an endowment or foundation that’s not their own. Of those, nearly 40 percent serve on three or more boards simultaneously; 26 percent serve on six or more boards.
• Eighty-eight percent of business owners said more collaborations among the public, private, and nonprofit spheres would help drive more economic growth.