Donor Demographics

Next time you're out raising money for your favorite charity, you would do best to first hit up your female friends — or perhaps the wives of your male ones. Women, it appears, are much better givers.

According to a recent study by the Women's Philanthropy Institute at the University of Indiana, women are as much as 40% more likely to donate than men. What's more, women at nearly every income level are better givers. Not only do they give more often; they also tend to donate more.

At the Direct Marketing Fundraisers Association Year-End Luncheon, veteran fundraising expert Roger Craver, founder of DonorTrends and editor of The Agitator, shared five fundraising trends to get on top of in 2011.

AFP CEO Paulette Maehara shares her thoughts on Convio's positive 2010 Holiday Giving Survey findings.

A research study into the charitable giving habits and attitudes of Canadians — the first of its kind for the Canadian market — reveals how donors of different generations learn about nonprofit organizations, their preferred channels for engagement, the most appropriate channels for fundraising, and who and what influences their giving decisions.

Do men and women give to different types of causes?

It turns out that women are just as likely, if not more likely, as men to give to every kind of cause, according to a study released this week.

But some charities do have an edge when it comes to seeking gifts from women. The largest gender difference the study found was in church giving: A third of women said they were more likely to support religious institutions over other causes, while only a quarter of men shared that view.

Hawaii’s people and businesses are as generous as ever, despite the economic slump.

But how local people and businesses give is rapidly changing and that transformation has some nonprofit leaders heartened, while others are worried. Optimists welcome the decay of what they saw as paternalistic philanthropy. These optimists see the rise of a new philanthropy in which individual donors are more empowered, and nonprofit success is rewarded with recognition and more donations.

We found eight distinct cases of hemispheric flip in direct-mail fundraising. Hemispheric flip is when the sides of the brain are incorrectly deployed: What should be rational decisions are made emotionally ... and vice versa.

Analyzing trends in the fundraising world is important on many levels. It lets you know what's happening in the industry, what that may mean for the future and how it compares to the past. Studying trends also lets you know where you stand compared to other organizations, allowing you to pinpoint what your organization is doing well and what it needs to work on.

Women at every income level give to charity more often than men do—and they tend to donate more money on average than their male counterparts, according to a study released Thursday.

The study, conducted by researchers at the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Indiana University Center on Philanthropy, analyzed charitable-giving data from 8,000 American households.

How does Generation Y choose to give, and in what ways? One example of a Generation Y stereotype-busting, charitably conscious individual is Carlo Garcia, an actor and producing director for Chicago’s Mary-Arrchie Theatre Co.