Fundraising Land is filled with myths.  Like…

…” immigrants don’t give” …” race matters when it comes to giving” … and on and on. I’m sure you’ve heard a dozen more.

Unfortunately, without data it’s difficult to separate myth from fact.

Fortunately, we now have an important study—the first to explore the intersection of race, gender and giving — that explodes the myths where gender, race and ethnicity are concerned.  Serious fundraisers looking to the future please take notice.

In Womengive|19: Gender and Giving Across Communities of Color, Indiana University’s Women’s Philanthropy Institute of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy has reported these key findings:

• A donor’s race does not have a significant effect on the amount given to charity, when taking income and other factors into account. When factors known to affect giving (such as wealth, income, and education) are taken into consideration, and giving is measured as a percentage of income, race does not appear to affect the amounts that households donate.
• Overall gender differences in giving appear consistent across racial groups. For all groups, single women are more likely than single men to give to charity; married and cohabiting couples are more likely than either single men or single women to give to charity.
• Formal volunteering shows greater racial and ethnic gaps. Communities of color appear to be less engaged in formal volunteering. Other research has shown that informal volunteering rates (giving time, but not via a formal program or organization) are higher in communities of color.

Recently at Blackbaud’s npNEXT at BBCON 2019 Una Osili, Associate Dean for Research and International Programs at Lilly presented some key research findings along with her observations and answer to the question: .  A few items that I think deserve special attention:

• Women and people of color are more likely to give informally or work outside or alongside formal or institutional philanthropy. One issue may be the overall lack of racial and gender diversity in the leadership of philanthropic organizations, and the programs they support;
• Minority donors are less likely to be approached by fundraisers: one study showed that Hispanici donors are highly interested in charitable giving, but are less likely than others to be approached by fundraisers
• One in five African Americans would donate to more organizations if they were asked more often. [ Emphasis added.]

Don’t be misled by frequent use of the term “philanthropist” in the report or when it comes to giving in general.  As you’ll see from the video below, women in communities of color, through giving circles and individual small gift efforts are achieving remarkable results.

Why should you care?  Because by understanding and harnessing the power both of identity and diversity you’ll get some mighty powerful results.

As Womengive|19: Gender and Giving Across Communities of Color reports

“… the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture (NMAAHC) intentionally and deliberately sought diversity among its supporters.  In addition to reaching out to typical donors such as large foundations and corporations, the NMAAHC embraced a strategy that also included the specific cultivation of African American donors, including churches and community groups. The result was a successful and unprecedented campaign that raised more than $300 million from large and small gifts alike.

Lonnie Bunch, founding director of the NMAAHC, stated, ‘I have the most diverse staff of any museum in America, and we have a diverse council. If this is the quintessential American story, I want all Americans to help shape it.’  And shape it they did. In addition to monetary donations, donors contributed artifacts and became some of the more than 100,000 members, adding their testimony to contribute to the legacy the museum represents.

And the National Museum of African History & Culture is not an isolated example.  As the Lilly report notes:

“Today as in the past, women often engage in philanthropy along racial and ethnic lines, whether in the African American sororities Alpha Kappa Alpha or Delta Sigma Theta, or in giving circles such as the Latina Giving Circle of San Diego, which provides opportunities for members to give back to the community.

“Similar identity-specific organizations exist across America with women from many cultures—Asian American, Latina, Hmong, Somali, and more—actively participating in giving and volunteering. By unifying with others in their identity group, these donors are able to make an impact that is important to their group in particular, and in the case of giving circles, leverage their giving for greater impact. Research also shows that when donors and recipients of charity share the same identity (e.g., both women, or both Asian American), donors see those causes as more important and tend to give more.  In many such instances, these women engage in causes that support people with the same identity for the very purpose of promoting greater inclusion and equity in society. Additionally, diverse women may give to a wider range of causes, populations, and communities.

“The rise of identity-specific giving circles, now representing about 60 percent of all giving circles, is a visible example of one pathway individuals are taking in philanthropy. Gender is still the largest identity-specific group; about 70 percent of all giving circles in a recent study reported that women comprised more than half their membership.   The movement is experiencing significant growth in the number of Asian/Pacific Islander, African American, Hispanic/Latino, and other race or ethnicity-based giving circles.11 Infrastructure networks such as Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP), Community Investment Network, and the Latino Community Foundation encourage, cultivate, host, and nurture many of these groups.

Again I urge you to read the Report, and start thinking what steps your organization can and should take to seize this opportunity.

Roger

P.S.  In my next post I’ll cover more on the huge important of women and giving and why many organizations are shooting themselves in the foot when it comes to dealing with women.