May 4, 2006 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The donations that Americans channeled to hurricane relief have not reduced charitable giving to other causes, according to a new survey by the Conference Board, in New York.
Nine out of ten Americans who donated to help people affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita said they also gave money to the charities they traditionally support, the survey found.
“It would appear that Americans once again came to bat for people suddenly in need while continuing to support the worthy causes they have always supported,” Lynn Franco, director of the Conference Board Consumer Research Center, said in a report on the survey.
The study polled 5,000 households, three-quarters of which donated to nonprofit groups last year.
Of that group, 63 percent gave money to hurricane relief.
More than a third of the families who donated to charities last year gave a sum larger than $100. Thirty-six percent gave $26 to $99, and less than a third gave an amount smaller than $25.
The survey also examined the impact of matching-gift programs on giving to hurricane relief.
Only a small number (13 percent) of survey participants who contributed to hurricane relief said they worked for companies that offered to match their donations, in part because many of those polled were self-employed, worked for small companies, or did not have jobs.
However, the vast majority (70 percent) of people employed by companies with matching-gift programs said they asked their employers to match their donations to relief causes.
Last year’s hurricanes may trigger an increase in corporate support for disaster relief, according to a separate survey by the Conference Board. One quarter of companies polled in the forthcoming survey said they were considering an increase in their giving if more natural disasters occur in 2006.
A report that summarizes the survey is available online at http://www.conference-board.org/utilities/pressDetail.cfm?press_ID=2857.
