Politics And Charitable Giving

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Last week it was the Republicans’ National Convention – this week, the Democrats' – the race is on to elect our next President of the United States (or ‘POTUS’ for all you West Wing and Veep addicts). Does all of this activity make a difference to your fundraising efforts? Blackbaud’s Giving in an Election Year report indicates that it does…. But is the trend a positive one or not?

The impact of political donations on charitable giving has been debated for decades, especially before and after presidential campaigns. There's no question that increasingly aggressive political campaigns discourage nonprofits from conducting donor acquisition campaigns when competition for attention is so intense. But is that right course to follow? While it seems logical to assume the opposite, our new study found an interesting correlation between donors’ political and charitable giving habits. The data showed that political donors gave more to nonprofit organizations in 2012 than they did in 2011!

The data does not tell why the influence happened, nor does it suggest that federal campaigns of 2016 or of the future will produce the same degree of influence, but the study’s findings do encourage further investigation. The underlying information revealed that political donations affect charitable giving in the following ways:

Donors who gave to federal political campaigns in 2012 gave 0.9% more to the charitable organizations we studied in 2012 than they had in 2011.
Donors who did not give to political campaigns reduced their giving to the charities we studied in 2012 by 2.1%.
These conclusions held true across all sub-sectors as well as the demographic segments of age range, household income, and head of household gender.

The findings of report suggested that younger households led by couples and single males increased their giving by as much as 10.8% in the campaign year. Abundant studies have shown 45–54 to be the prime age range in which sustainable giving habits are cultivated; a time when discretionary income peaks and giving is prompted by maturing life experience.

But we may have discovered in this study that high-profile campaign years are ideal target times for nonprofits to acquire young donors.

Those with incomes under $50,000 had the largest increase in charitable giving; while those with incomes above $150,000 were steady in their charitable giving levels.

If you’re a Target Analytics customer and have purchased an analytic product such as Fundraising Essentials or ProspectPoint/WealthPoint, you might want to overlay this report's findings and segment your results focusing on your best younger prospects! Plan an acquisition, lapsed or upgrade effort with this important demographic information. If age or income is missing from your constituent records, purchase them through our Data Enrichment Services.

Annual fund offices may benefit the most in an election year according to this report. Read more about it! Giving in an Election Year: How Political Giving Impacts Nonprofit Support

News ARCHIVED | Blackbaud Target Analytics® Tips and Tricks 07/25/2016 4:37pm EDT

Added by Katherine Swank

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