Most Wealthy Donors Unaware of Alternative Giving Methods, Study Says

Title: The Giving Gap: Donor Awareness and Use of Strategic Giving Methods

Organization: Fidelity Charitable

Summary: The study found that 92 percent of wealthy donors consider their charitable giving as equally or more important to them than other financial priorities. However, most rich donors were unaware of the full range of giving options available, with about half still relying on cash, checks, or credit cards.

Among those who knew they could choose other methods such as donating appreciated assets (stock, bonds, and mutual funds, for example) or naming a charity the beneficiary of a life-insurance policy or a retirement plan, many did not.

The survey polled 950 wealthy donors.

Among the findings:

• While 80 percent of respondents said they owned appreciated assets, only 21 percent of them had ever contributed such assets to charity. And while 90 percent had a retirement plan or life-insurance policy, only 9 percent had named a nonprofit as a beneficiary.
• Fifty-three percent of respondents had discussed charitable planning with an adviser. Although this group was more likely to know about a broader variety of giving vehicles, they were not more likely to use them.
• Donors under 50 had less wealth over all but were more likely to use alternative giving methods than their older counterparts.
• Those who gave more than $20,000 a year to nonprofits were most likely to know about and use methods of giving other than cash, checks and credit cards, yet 25 percent of those donors were not doing so.