Donating to charity is woven into both the budgets and financial plans of most affluent households, says a study released Thursday by Chicago's Northern Trust Corp., and nearly half plan to increase their charitable giving this year.
The survey of 1,014 households with $1 million or more of non-real estate liquid, or "investable," assets examines in part the most prevalent attitudes toward charitable giving, the impact of the Gulf Coast storms on such giving, the amounts donated in 2005 and increases planned for 2006, and the types of organizations to which money is donated.
The nationwide study was done for Northern Trust by Phoenix Marketing, and the research was completed in November, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.65 percentage points at a 95% level of confidence. Most of the wealthy Americans, 71%, said that donating time and-or money to charities or nonprofit organizations is part of their family life, and nearly half, 47%, want to be personally involved in the charities to which they donate.
About 44% of the affluent households said they planned to increase charitable giving during the succeeding 12 months. And specifically, 57% of families living in Texas and 59% of those in New York were planning to donate more.
