December 3, 1998 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The wealthiest Americans gave, on average, 8 per cent of their after-tax income to charity last year, according to a new study. That’s up from an average of 5 per cent in 1993, the study found.
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Giving and Volunteering by the Nation’s Wealthy
Most of the people surveyed for the study said they had increased their charitable contributions as a result of the roaring U.S. stock market during most of the 1990s. Likewise, nearly half of the respondents said that a stock-market decline would lead them to decrease the amount they gave to non-profit groups.
Last year, the respondents each gave to charity, on average, a total of $29,400 — or 8 per cent of their after-tax income. By comparison, the average American contributes 3 per cent of after-tax income, a report on the survey says.
But, says Jeffrey S. Maurer, president of U.S. Trust Corporation, an investment-management company in New York that sponsored the survey, the wealthy could be giving even more. By not taking greater advantage of gifts that offer tax breaks, he says, “the affluent really shortchange their favorite charities and themselves.”
Only one out of five of the survey’s respondents last year made gifts of appreciated stock — which saves a donor from paying capital-gains taxes — and fewer had ever set up a charitable remainder trust, a type of tax-free planned gift.
The U.S. Trust study was based on a survey of 150 people with an annual adjusted gross income of more than $225,000 or a net worth of at least $3-million — which puts them among the wealthiest 1 per cent of all Americans.
Among the survey’s other findings:
* The two primary reasons for giving among the affluent were what the survey called “a desire to support worthwhile causes” and “a belief that those who have been financially successful have a responsibility to share their good fortune.”
* Most of the contributions made by the survey’s respondents last year went to charities that support education, religion, or social-service programs. About one-quarter of the respondents said they intend over the coming few years to give more to non-profit groups that benefit young people.
* Nearly 40 per cent of the respondents said that being asked in person by a friend to support a charity was the most effective way to persuade them to donate.
Free copies of “U.S. Trust Survey of Affluent Americans XV” are available from Allison C. Kellogg, Senior Vice-President for Marketing and Corporate Communications, U.S. Trust, 114 West 47th Street, Sixth Floor, New York 10036-1532; (212) 852-1127. A summary of the report is available at the company’s World-Wide Web site, at http://www.ustrust.com/affluent.htm.
