Men and Women Make Bequests at Equal Rates, Study Finds

Men and women who support charities during their lifetime are about equally likely to provide for charities in their wills, according to new research by the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, in Indianapolis.

Among donors who have a will, 17.2 percent of men and 15.1 percent of women included a charitable bequest in that document, according to the center’s study.

The report also found no difference between single men and single women in their likelihood of planning bequests to charity, after controlling for such factors as age, education, and income. Single individuals of either gender were more likely than either married or widowed supporters of charities to arrange charitable bequests, said the study. About one in four single donors who have wills have made provision for planned giving.

However, among people who often attend religious services, men were more likely to report having provided for charities in their wills, according to researchers.

The data not only contradict conventional wisdom that women are more likely to leave money to charities, but also point to untapped potential for arranging planned gifts, says Una Osili, director of research at the Center on Philanthropy. “I think just that knowledge is very important,” she says. “There’s still a large percentage of the population that don’t have a charitable bequest.”

The study — which examined the attitudes of donors who had set up charitable bequests, those who had a will but no such bequest, and those without a will — was financially supported by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, in Alexandria, Va., and by Legacy Leaders, a consulting firm with offices in Philadelphia and Toronto.

Different Motivations

Although men and women were equally likely to set aside a portion of their estates for charities, Center on Philanthropy researchers found some nuances in the reasons why such donors gave. Among the findings:

• All donors said a sense of responsibility to help those less fortunate than themselves was their strongest motivation for giving. However, a larger percentage of female donors with charitable bequests cited that reason than did their male counterparts — 76.4 percent of women, compared to 67.9 percent of men.
• Religious beliefs were cited as the second strongest motivator by all donors. Third among motivations for giving cited by those respondents who had set up wills was a belief that charities serve society more efficiently than does government or business (reported by 65.2 percent of females and 62 percent of males who had set up charitable bequests).
• However, meeting others’ material needs (cited by 40 percent of men and 51.8 percent of women) was the fourth most commonly cited motivation for giving among donors who have wills but have not set up bequests to charity. Past experience as a client of a charity or knowing someone who was a charity client was the fifth most commonly cited motivation for giving among this group.

The full report, “Gender Differences in Giving Motivations for Bequest Donors and Non-Donors,” is available for free download on the Center on Philanthropy Web site. Go to: http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/Research.