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“Let me tell you about the very rich.” wrote F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1926. “They are different from you and me.” In terms of charitable giving, they can also be very different from each other, as research from the Bank of America and the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University has recently uncovered.

The Bank of America partnered with the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University to conduct a study on the giving habits of high net worth individuals. An initial report was published in October 2006.
A follow up report was released in December 2007.

The Center on Philanthropy took a random survey of over 30,000 households in high net worth communities across the country which resulted in 1,400 responses. The survey sought to understand not only charitable practices, but the motivations behind them.

High net worth households, defined as those with incomes greater than $200,000 or assets in excess of $1 million, represent just 3.1 percent of total households in the United States. However, according to the survey results, these high net worth households are responsible for two-thirds of all household charity in this country.
The 2006 report dispelled some myths, for instance:
Myth: The wealthy are more likely to write a check to a charity than to volunteer.
Fact: There was very high correlation between the two—the more hours surveyed donors volunteered, the bigger the check was likely to be.

Myth: Tax deductions are very much a determining factor in gift making.
Fact: More than half the donors who responded to the survey said their giving would remain the same if there were zero tax deductions allowed for gifts to charity, or if the estate tax were repealed.

Myth: Leaving a legacy is very much a priority for most high net worth donors.
Fact: Most donors who responded to the survey were motivated by meeting the critical needs of the charity or cause, or by giving back to society, not by “leaving a legacy”.

The 2006 report also produced some findings that were a surprise to researchers: giving patterns were significantly different when compared by sources of net worth. They found that entrepreneurs were especially generous donors, contributing an average of $232,000 annually. The next highest group, those who inherited wealth, had an average of $110,000 in charitable giving, less than half the total of entrepreneurs. In turn, these two groups had higher rates of charitable giving than those whose net worth came from savings, investments, or real estate.

The 2007 report followed up on giving behaviors by source of net worth. Researchers created 12 archetypes, or portraits of donors, that looked more closely for patterns of giving:

• The Very Wealthy: Households with a net worth of $50 million or more
• The Entrepreneur: Households with 50 percent or more of their net worth in entrepreneurial assets
• The High-Frequency Volunteer: Donors who reported volunteering more than 200 hours per year
• The Dynast: Households that give their children money, which the children use to donate to charity
• The Bequeather: Households that report having a provision in their will where they will leave 25 percent or more to charity
• The Metropolitan: Those households whose primary residence is in a city with a population of 500,000 or more
• The Strategic Donor: Households that have created foundations and/or donor-advised funds and that give to relatively few charities
• The Transactional Donor: Donors who have given to many charities and who have not created a foundation or donor-advised fund
• The Altruistic Donor: Households that report being motivated by a sense that “one should help meet critical needs in society” or that “those with more should help those with less, ”although“ they would not give more to charity if they received a better return on their financial investments.”
• The Financially Pragmatic Donor: Households that reported being concerned about the “return on their financial investments” and “feeling more financially secure.”
• The Devout Donor: Those households attending religious services weekly (or more often) and donating to religious causes
• The Secular Donor:  Households that do not attend religious services and do not give to religious causes

So, as correct as F. Scott Fitzgerald’s supposition may be, it is also true that high net worth donors are as individual in their giving as anyone.

Fundraisers who have their eyes trained on very high net worth individuals will likely find both reports valuable. They can be found at the websites of both the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University http://www.philanthropy.iupui.edu/Research/giving_fundraising_research.aspx and Bank of America http://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/index.php?s=press_kit&item=92

Meg Sheridan is the principal of Crossroads, which provides research, grant writing, and strategic planning services to non-profit organizations.