INDIANAPOLIS, IN - A two-decades-long drop in Americans' participation in charitable giving accelerated during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the average amount given by donors increased, according to new research from the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University Indianapolis.
"The Giving Environment: Giving During Times of Uncertainty" found that the share of Americans who give to charity declined 4 percentage points from 2018 to 2020. Photo by Adragan, Adobe Stock Photography
The Giving Environment series analyzes data from the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy's Philanthropy Panel Study, which is part of the University of Michigan's Panel Study of Income Dynamics. As a nationally representative longitudinal study, the Philanthropy Panel Study follows more than 9,000 households from 2000 to 2020 and provides the most comprehensive data available on giving trends by U.S. households.
The dataset for the new study spans a subset of Philanthropy Panel Study data from 2010 to 2020, allowing researchers to analyze the philanthropic landscape immediately before and during the pandemic.
Donors down
The share of Americans who give to charity declined from 50.9% in 2018 to 46.9% in 2020, following the onset of the pandemic. The researchers said factors related to the pandemic hastened the decline at a faster pace than they estimate would have occurred without the pandemic.
Rates of secular charitable giving experienced a sharper decline from pre-pandemic levels than did giving rates to religious congregations.
Before the pandemic, the share of American households participating in charitable giving had fallen from two-thirds in 2000 to about half in 2018.
Dollars up
In contrast to declining giving rates, the study found an 11.6% increase in the average amount given by donor households, from $2,792 in pre-pandemic years to $3,116 in 2020. In the years before the pandemic, average amounts given were largely stable.
The 2020 growth was primarily driven by a surge in the amount that households gave to secular causes, from $1,327 in pre-pandemic years to $1,909 in 2020, a 44% increase. The amount given to religious congregations remained consistent with pre-pandemic levels.
"This new study documents the resilience of Americans' generosity even amidst some of the most challenging times our country has faced in recent years," said Una Osili, associate dean for research and international programs at the school. "Everyday Americans increased the amount of their charitable giving in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as aspects of the crisis exacerbated the 'declining donors' trend in the share of U.S. households who give that we've seen over two decades."
Pandemic's impact on giving
Declines in giving rates were concentrated among people whose communities experienced more severe health and economic consequences of the pandemic. Individual-level pandemic experiences, such as job loss or a COVID-19 diagnosis, may have had a smaller impact on giving participation rates compared to the impact of living in more severely affected communities.
"The COVID-19 pandemic was one of the most significant forces of change in the charitable giving landscape in decades," said Amir Pasic, the Eugene R. Tempel Dean of the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. "This research expands knowledge of how it disrupted and reshaped American households' giving behavior. It sheds light on whether and how pandemic factors - such as social distancing mandates, unprecedented economic loss, and COVID-19-related morbidity and mortality - may have impacted giving."
The length of state-mandated pandemic shutdowns doesn't appear to have impacted giving, except for giving to religious congregations. The longer the duration of mandated shutdowns, the more the giving participation rates and amounts given to religious congregations increased.
