Arlington, VA (November 15, 2021) – According to new research from BBB’s Give.org, racial minorities express higher desire to be approached by charities than does the general public. While 33.1% of survey takers overall said they would like charities to approach them more or would be willing to give more if approached; 50.1% of African Americans and Hispanics said they would like charities to approach them more or would be willing to give more if approached.

The standards-based, charity-evaluation group today released the Give.org Donor Trust Report 2021: Profiles in Charity Trust and Giving. The report, a survey of more than 2,100 adults in the United States and more than 1,000 adults in Canada, identifies significant shifts in trust for specific charity types and includes individual donor profiles for 13 charity categories based on self-reported behavior. The report also suggests that donor participation rates continued to decrease during 2020, even as openness to solicitation among racial minorities grew in the past two years.

“The sector is facing a participation crisis where, despite growing overall giving, the portion of Americans contributing to charities is decreasing. Based on self-reported giving to different charity types, our results suggest that the trend continued during 2020,” said H. Art Taylor, president and CEO of BBB’s Give.org, “This is a worrisome trend as we strive to build a diverse and inclusive charitable sector.”

Report highlights include:

• The portion of the population that highly trusts different charity types was relatively unchanged during 2020, with the exceptions of environmental organizations and civil rights and community action organizations, each experiencing a 3-point increase in “high trust.”

• Out of 13 charity categories in the survey, 8 saw a drop in the portion of participants that report giving during 2020 as compared to 2019. Also, when considering alternative donation channels used during 2020, the portion of participants who report not contributing through any channels increased from 16.4% in December 2018, to 20.0% in December 2019, and to 24.9% in December 2020.\

• Racial minorities express higher desire to be approached by charities. For instance, among white participants, 25.1% said they would like charities to approach them more or would be willing to give more if approached; rather than saying they do not want to be approached or have been approached more than they should be. The portion of participants who would like charities to approach them more or would be willing to give more if approached is higher among African Americas (50.1%), Hispanics (50.1%) and Asian Americans (39.6%)

• 51.4% of African Americans and 40.4% of Hispanics prefer to support charities serving specific needs affecting their ethnic community, as compared to 33.6% overall.

For a free copy of the report, go to Give.org/DonorTrust.

BBB’s Give.org urges donors to give thoughtfully by taking the time to investigate charities before making a donation and to visit Give.org to verify if a charity meets the 20 BBB Standards for Charity Accountability.

ABOUT BBB WISE GIVING ALLIANCE: BBB Wise Giving Alliance (BBB’s Give.org) is a standards-based charity evaluator that seeks to verify the trustworthiness of nationally soliciting charities by completing rigorous evaluations based on 20 holistic standards that address charity governance, results reporting, finances, fundraising, appeal accuracy and other issues. National charity reports are produced by BBB’s Give.org and local charity reports are produced by local Better Business Bureaus – all reports are available at Give.org.

ABOUT BBB: For more than 100 years, the Better Business Bureau has been helping people find businesses, brands, and charities they can trust. In 2020, people turned to BBB more than 220 million times for BBB Business Profiles on 6.2 million businesses and Charity Reports on 11,000 charities, all available for free at BBB.org. The International Association of Better Business Bureaus is the umbrella organization for the local, independent BBBs in the United States, Canada, and Mexico.

MEDIA CONTACTS: For more information, journalists should contact Elvia Castro (703-247-9322 or ecastro@give.org)