September 21, 2021 – From Candid

More than a quarter (27 percent) of U.S. adults who gave to charity in 2020 gave significantly more last year than they did the previous year, and 26 percent plan to give more in 2021 than they did in 2020, a survey by Fidelity Charitable finds.

Based on a survey conducted in July and August of 701 U.S. adults who donated at least $1,000 to charity in 2020, the report, What comes next: How COVID-19 will influence giving in 2021 and beyond (HTML or 4 pages, PDF), found that 67 percent planned to give about the same in 2021 as they did in 2020, while 7 percent planned to give less. According to the survey, 22 percent of respondents said that in 2020 they became more aware of certain issues and planned to give more to help address those causes in 2021, including the development of cures for diseases (42 percent and 27 percent), local community needs (34 percent and 29 percent), hunger (32 percent and 32 percent), and racial discrimination (31 percent and 21 percent).

Asked whether COVID-19 or social justice issues had a greater impact on their charitable giving over the past year, 22 percent said COVID-19, 10 percent said social justice issues, 23 percent said both, and 45 percent said neither. In terms of the long-term impact of events in the past year, including the pandemic and social justice issues, 34 percent said they would give more, 6 percent said they would give less, and 60 percent saw no long-term impact on their giving.

The survey also found that donors plan to give more in 2021 through newer channels, such as purchasing from socially responsible businesses (29 percent), making donations on a charity’s website or online (28 percent), giving directly to individuals (28 percent), and donating through a giving circle (18 percent), an online giving platform (17 percent), or a social media platform (16 percent). In addition, while before the pandemic, only 8 percent and 7 percent of respondents volunteered virtually and both in person and virtually, during the pandemic those figures grew to 17 percent and 13 percent; going forward, 8 percent plan to volunteer virtually and 24 percent plan to do so both in person and virtually.