The Center for Disaster Philanthropy (CDP), Candid and the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI announced the release of the first comprehensive study on household donations to disasters, the U.S. Household Disaster Giving in 2017 and 2018 Report. This study reveals new data on U.S. households’ disaster giving and answers many of the questions most often asked about patterns, preferences and practices of individual charitable giving for disaster aid efforts.

Key data insights from the report include:

Approximately 30% of U.S. households made a disaster-related donation in 2017 (31%) and in 2018 (29%).

Top motivations for disaster giving were:

  • Magnitude of a disaster—the scale of an event and the number of people affected—was the top motivating factor for giving to disaster aid efforts.
  • Personal connections to the location of a disaster and media coverage.

Over a fifth (22%) of U.S. households donated to disaster aid efforts in both years; 18% of these donors regularly supported disaster aid efforts or considered disaster giving as part of their annual charitable budgets.

Continued support waned in years following a disaster:

  • In 2018, about 5% of U.S. households donated to provide continued relief from 2017 disasters, and another nearly 3% donated to continue alleviating impacts of disasters that occurred prior to 2017.
  • In 2017, only 2% donated to support recovery from disasters that occurred in earlier years.

Approximately three-fifths (61%) of disaster aid donor households made both financial and in-kind gifts.

About 12 percent of U.S. households volunteered to assist with disaster aid efforts in at least one of the two years.

Read more about U.S. disaster relief giving at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy or download the full report below.