Financial pressures haven’t stopped people from giving

The pandemic has brought new financial pressures for many. Despite inflation and other hardships, people still maintain a sense of philanthropy. In one new investigation Conducted by Versta Research on behalf of Wells Fargo, 95% of respondents said giving makes them feel good and the pandemic has highlighted new opportunities to give. Some even said they wished they could give more. Here’s how giving habits have changed.

Give trends

According to various surveys, the pandemic is bringing out a more charitable side of people. In a December Popmenu poll, 58% of people said they are now tip more restaurant employees. People living in wealthy households also say they have significantly increased their donations since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the Wells Fargo survey, 57% say the pandemic has changed their level of donation. Here’s what has changed:

Among those who feel they are not giving enough, the younger generations are ahead of the pack. In addition to having difficulty saying “no” to a solicitation, the majority of Millennials (74%) and Gen Z (76%) say they feel their donation has been insufficient. The survey does not say whether this feeling is caused by giving less than other groups or if it simply reflects the desire to do more.

The survey also made it clear that many of those who give money have no plans to do so and have not necessarily made room in their budget to give. Only 29% said they plan their giving each year, and only 14% have an annual budget for giving. In contrast, the vast majority (71%) tend to give depending on when they feel “moved”.

New channels to give

Relatively new channels for giving, such as crowdfunding, social media, and paylines, may make it easier for people to offer these spontaneous financial giving. In the survey, 79% of respondents said they enjoyed having new ways to give and 46% of respondents said they used a new channel for their giving this year. Here are the most popular new donation methods:

Unsurprisingly, the most recent methods are used most often by millennials (57%) compared to just 34% of baby boomers.

Crowdfunding and other new ways to facilitate philanthropy tend to focus on giving money, but young survey respondents might choose other types of giving if alternatives were available. In the Wells Fargo survey, about half of Gen Z (52%) and Millennials (48%) respondents said they would rather give time than money, compared to 36% of all respondents who said the same thing.

Methodology: Versta Research conducted a national online survey of 811 American adults on behalf of Wells Fargo & Company. The survey was conducted from November 4 to 16, 2021 and the results were provided to Wells Fargo & Company on November 30, 2021. Although the study did not indicate which definitions it used for different generations, many pollers use cutoffs similar to those of Pew Research: Gen Z is described as 18 to 23, Millennials as 24 to 39, Gen X as 40 to 55, and Baby Boomers between 56 and 74 year.