As your nonprofit is gearing up for year-end fundraising and making plans for 2014, there is some interesting data available from the report Women Give 2013 New Research on Charitable Giving by Girls and Boys. You may think it’s odd for children to be a donor audience, but for many children, charitable giving is an important part of their family values and upbringing.
The study follows the charitable giving habits of 903 children aged 8 to 19. Check out some of the key findings:
- 88% of children donated to charity. Interestingly, there was no real difference between girls and boys levels of giving, where as in adults, women are often viewed as more charitable.
- 87% of children whose families are low income and 86% whose families are middle income donated to charity. 90% of children whose families are high income donated money. Again, it’s fascinating to see that no matter what their family income level was, children were extremely charitable. Let’s hope this trend continues into adulthood.
- Eight out of ten children have parents who gave to charity at least once during two studies.
- Nine out of ten children have parents who talk to them about giving to charity.
- Volunteering is important to children. The study reported that 60% of girls and 50% of boys volunteered for charity.
Despite that the data is a few years old, the study shows the positive impact on children’s charitable giving when their parents discuss it with them. Donating to charity is not just about modeling their parents behaviors.
The study found that this was true across gender, income level, race, and age groups.
“Such powerful, empirical results not only give parents an understanding of how they can help their children become charitable givers but also provide a clear direction for engaging children in charitable behavior,” said the study.