November 15, 2016 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Title: “Women Give 2016″
Organization: Women’s Philanthropy Institute and Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
Summary: Today’s millennial and Generation X households give less on average compared with the same age group four decades ago, according to the study. However, it shows that young women drive giving in those households: Single women, the study says, are giving slightly more, in today’s dollars, than did single women in the 1970s, and women are more likely to influence couples’ philanthropy these days.
The findings suggest that fundraisers should not only include women in conversations about a couple’s giving, the report said, but to “make sure the conversational content resonates with the motivations and preferences of women.”
The study examined giving behavior in three American generations at the same point in their lives, when they were ages 25 to 47. The researchers looked at households headed by “pre-boomers” (people born from 1928 to 1946) and compared them with giving by people born since 1965 — Generation Xers and millennials combined.
Among the findings:
- Millennial and Gen X couples gave an average of $594 annually, much lower than the average of $721 pre-boomer couples gave.
- Single millennial and Gen X men gave more on average than their female peers: an average of $344 annually, compared with $244 from single women. But those women were more generous than single pre-boomer women, who gave $216, while the men lagged their elders, who gave $492.
- Among millennial and Gen X couples, nearly 84 percent made their giving decisions with the influence of women. Four decades ago, a smaller share of couples — 73 percent — did so.
- When women help make giving decisions, millennial and Gen X couples give more: An average of $1,385 annually, up from the $1,269 when only men decide how to give.
- Both single people and couples are less likely to donate large gifts — defined as $600 for today’s donors and $100 for donors in the 1970s — than four decades ago. Thirty-nine percent of millennial and Gen X couples gave large contributions, compared with 52 percent of pre-boomer couples in 1973.
