Black, Hispanic, and Asian Donors Give More to 猫咪社区 Causes, Survey Finds

Giving to racial and social justice causes is on the rise鈥攅specially among donors of color. African Americans are the most likely to give to strangers of all racial and ethnic groups.

Why you can trust us

By Wendy Chen &
Una Osili

2 MIN READ

Sep 23, 2021

More than a year after protesters around the world responded to the tragic deaths of , and other people of color, U.S. donors of all backgrounds are still responding to calls for an end to deep-rooted racial inequities.

To learn more about these giving patterns, the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy teamed up with the nonpartisan research organization NORC at the University of Chicago to survey 1,535 Americans from Sept. 14 to Oct. 6, 2020. The survey, which has a margin of sampling error for all respondents of plus or minus 5 percentage points, indicates that 鈥攅specially among donors of color.

We in a recent report that also draws on insights from focus groups convened with diverse donors across the country and prior research.

Diverse Racial and Ethnic Backgrounds

Giving to including groups tied to the , the , and other cultural and arts institutions and , , and has grown in recent years. The share of Americans who said they are doing this .

Even larger shares of people within communities of color support these causes: 30.7% of Asian Americans, 19.3% of African Americans and 13.9% of Hispanic Americans donate to social and racial justice causes, compared with 12.6% of White people.

In addition, we found that donors to social and racial justice causes are more likely to be single and young and less likely to attend religious services frequently compared with donors overall.

Informal Giving

Donors of color who fund charitable organizations also . For example, they were more likely to say that they give money and goods to their relatives and friends than were typical White donors.

In addition, many Asian and Black people said they had donated more goods to others rather than money. Notably, from our research, we also see that African Americans are the most likely to give to strangers of all racial and ethnic groups, holding other variables constant.

These findings regarding how often give directly to members of their communities, including people outside their families and circles of friends.

Fighting Against Oppression

U.S. philanthropists from marginalized groups have used giving as a means of self-help for people of color to fight racial oppression . For example, the African American entrepreneur helped finance the Underground Railroad.

With the that began when the arose, the Asian American community has started to give more to causes that tackle the causes of discrimination and xenophobia. Many Asians are turning to and to to fund these efforts to stop hate crimes.

One notable result: the , which advocates on behalf of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. By mid-2021 the new foundation said its funding had .

This article was originally published by聽. It has been republished here with permission.

Wendy Chen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Texas Tech University and a Visiting Scholar at IUPUI. She also serves as a Senior Associate Editor for the Management Decision journal. Her research interests lie in philanthropy, social innovation and finance, public and nonprofit management and leadership, and regional economic development.

Una Osili is Director of Research at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. An internationally recognized expert on philanthropy, Dr. Osili frequently speaks across the country on issues related to national and international trends in philanthropy and has been quoted by national news media outlets such as The New York Times, the Chronicle of Philanthropy, and Nonprofit Times.