Giving Compass' Take:

• A survey by Cygnus Applied Research found that 56% of respondents expected to give about the same amount by the end of 2019 and into 2020 as they did in 2018, while 29% planned to give more and 10 percent planned to give less.

• Where are you on your giving journey? Did your giving habits change last year?

• Read giving tips for new and experienced donors. 


Fewer than a third of donors plan to up their giving in 2020 from what they gave in 2018, while 56 percent plan to give about the same, a report from Cygnus Applied Research finds.

Based on a 2019 online survey of more than 18,500 Americans who made at least one donation in 2017 or 2018, the 2019 edition of the Burk Donor Survey: How to Raise More Money in a Changing Giving Environment (executive summary, 19 pages, PDF) found that of the 23 percent of respondents who donated at least $10,000 in 2018, a third planned to give more in 2019 and 2020, up from a quarter in the previous survey. In addition, donors under the age of 35 were more likely to say they would give more (49 percent) than those between the ages of 35 and 64 (32 percent) and those over the age of 64 (26 percent). According to the report, a quarter of all respondents who intend to increase their giving cited politics as a factor in their decision, down from 33 percent and 51 percent in the 2018 and 2017 surveys.

Among racial/ethnic groups, African Americans — who accounted for just 4 percent of respondents — were the most likely to say they plan to increase their giving (37 percent). The survey also found that 71 percent of African Americans identify as "actively religious," and that 38 percent of African-American donors in the sample allocated at least 60 percent of their charitable giving dollars in 2018 to a religious institution.

Read the full article about maintaining your giving by Kyoko Uchida at Philanthropy News Digest.