Education and Kids Top Rich Chinese-Americans’ Giving Priorities, Study Says

Title: “CTBC Bank Survey: Philanthropy and Business”

Organization: CTBC Bank, with FTI Consulting

Summary: In a survey that compared giving by wealthy Chinese-Americans with giving by rich American over all, children’s and education charities ranked highest in importance for both groups.

Forty-seven percent of respondents over all and 44 percent of Chinese-American respondents said they were likely to give to children’s groups. A similar share of respondents — 46 percent of all participants and 44 percent of Chinese-Americans — favored education charities.

However, health-care causes ranked higher for affluent Chinese-Americans (41 percent) than for wealthy Americans over all (33 percent).

Rich Americans in the survey were more likely than Chinese-Americans to give to a charity whose mission reflected their religious affiliation — 57 percent of respondents over all and 49 percent of Chinese-Americans.

The 473 Americans surveyed had annual incomes of at least $250,000 and included 153 first-, second-, and third-generation Chinese-Americans. The survey was conducted in September.

Among other findings:

• Chinese-Americans surveyed put an equal priority on donating money and time. Among all wealthy Americans in the study, though, 58 percent favored giving money and 42 percent time.
• Just over 90 percent of all respondents said they had donated money to charity in the previous year.
• Wealthy Americans over all were slightly more likely than their Chinese-American peers to have volunteered during the previous year: Sixty-two percent of all respondents had given their time, but 58 percent of Chinese Americans had done so.
• Corporate giving matters: Sixty-three percent of affluent Chinese-Americans say they consider an organization’s philanthropy when looking for a job. Fifty-five percent of all Americans said the same.