Last week, BBB Wise Giving Alliance released the Give.org Special Donor Trust Report: Donor Participation. In part, this online survey of 2,100 American and 1,000 Canadian adults was motivated by the decline in American households contributing to charity. This latest Donor Trust Report showed that most participants who stopped or decreased their contributions to charity said they could not afford to give. Finances aside, participants said they did not trust the soliciting charity, preferred other ways of being generous, or did not feel like they had been asked. For those interested in a quick read, we recommend the coverage by The Chronicle of Philanthropy or The NonProfit Times.

It is interesting to note that the survey results for both Americans and Canadians tracked very closely as shown in the chart below that compares the percentage of individuals who said that they increased, decreased, or stopped giving over the past five years.

In both countries, older generations are significantly more likely to report maintaining or increasing their contributions to charity over the past five years. However, while 5% of Canadian participants who stopped donating said they could not afford to, 51% of Americans who stopped donating said the same. Among American participants, 59% of people with household income above $70k who stopped giving to charities agree with the statement “there are people out there with significantly more money who should give to charity instead of me.”

The similarities in the giving patterns between Canada and the U.S. has also been supported by previous research completed by BBB Wise Giving Alliance: see the Give.org Donor Trust Report’s Five-Year Review of Trust and Giving Attitudes.

For additional details and insights on the Donor Participation survey results, we welcome you to review the full report here.

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Heart of Giving Podcast

In this week’s Heart of Giving Podcast, BBB Wise Giving Alliance features Part 2 of a discussion on how nonprofits can navigate the increasingly fragmented media environment. This part includes a conversation with Terese Kung, Executive Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Harrison/Star. Terese Kung also serves as a member of the BBB Wise Giving Alliance Board of Directors.

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We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include:

• Foundation for AIDS Research, aka amfAR
• Partners of the Americas
• National Runaway Safeline

Finally, remember to let us know by going to give.org/charity-inquiry if you are interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.