What motivates an individual to give time and/or money to an organization? This question has been studied in an assortment of ways by a variety of institutions over a number of years. Data consistently points to educational attainment, increased wealth, and socio-demographic factors of age, marital status, gender, race, etc. as determinants of philanthropic giving. A recent study conducted by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and Vanguard Charitable explored giving attitudes further by assessing intra-family connections across generations. Their research found correlation between generational family relationships as another determinant of philanthropic contributions.
The 2016 report A Tradition of Giving summarizes this research in several interesting bullet points:
- Parents’ decisions to give to charity influence their children’s decisions to give; parents who give are more likely to have children who give.
- Parent volunteering has a two-fold impact on children; parents who volunteer have children who volunteer and give.
- While the philanthropic priorities of parents and their children are more closely matched than those of grandparents and grandchildren, grandparents still influence giving.
- Overall giving by parents who are closer in age to their children has a stronger influence on their children’s overall giving than overall giving by parents who are further in age from their children.
- Overall giving by parents from intact families who had not experienced a marital transition has a stronger influence on their children’s overall giving than overall giving by parents from families where a marital transition had occurred.
- Overall giving by parents who spent time helping their children at all within the previous year has a stronger influence on their children’s overall giving than parents who did not spend time helping their children.
Furthermore, parents’ talking to children about charitable giving has a greater impact on children’s giving than role-modeling alone, a report from the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy finds.
In short, if you desire to raise charitable children, your giving behavior has a direct influence.
To learn more about how you can make a multi-generational difference in Rush County, contact us! We’re happy to share ways you can become involved as a volunteer and/or donor. For more information on the Rush County Community Foundation, visit our website at www.rushcountyfoundation.org. For the full A Tradition of Giving report, visit www.philanthropy.iupui.edu.
