51% of Americans Plan to Donate Before the End of the Year, Poll Finds

Fifty-one percent of Americans say they plan to make a charitable donation before the end of the year, according to a nationwide poll recently conducted for the Nonprofit Institute at the University of San Diego.

Fifty-nine percent of Americans say they will contribute about the same amount this year as they did in 2018, and about 30 percent said they will give more.

Laura Deitrick, one of the researchers on the project and the associate director of the institute, said the survey results, along with other data, suggest that the 2017 law isn’t having a substantial impact on the amount people give to charity. “I think people have made leaps in their head that the tax law has had big effects on giving,” she said. “We’re not seeing evidence of that.”

The implications of the research for fundraisers, she said, is that it’s not too late to make one more year-end giving push.

“The poll shows that most Americans have a generous heart and plan to give,” she said. “If nonprofits let their foot off the gas pedal because they think end-of-year giving is done due to the tax bill, these data indicate that could be a mistake.”

The poll, conducted by Luth Research for the university, surveyed 500 people across the nation.

The results of the poll haven’t been formally released, Deitrick said. The researchers plan to work on an academic article based on the data.

Dan Parks is the Chronicle’s senior editor for digital and data