The survey of 33 wealthy donors found that most rely on recommendations from their peers and social networks rather than research when choosing which charities to support. Many donors said they feel a lack of information on the effectiveness of the organizations and causes they support. While donors want better information, most are reluctant to burden the charities with additional reporting or risk unwanted solicitations. Donors also prefer to support tangible projects with clear results over harder-to-measure effectiveness.

1. News
Home Giving News
October 2, 2008
Most Donors Rely on Peers When Choosing a Cause,
Survey Finds
By Holly Hall
By Holly Hall
In deciding which charities to support, many wealthy donors do not
judge nonprofit organizations by how much they spend on overhead
costs — despite the popularity of that measure among watchdog
groups and others — a new survey has found.
Interviews with 33 people who give away an average of $1.5-million
annually, found that most had built businesses in finance,
technology, pharmacology, and other fields. Several said they were
sympathetic to and will support organizations' need for money to
pay for overhead and other operating costs.
The survey, conducted by researchers at the University of
Pennsylvania's Center for High Impact Philanthropy, was aimed at
providing insight into how the nation's wealthiest donors choose the
charities they support, how they obtain information on those
organizations, how they assess the impact of their gifts, and the
roles they see themselves playing in nonprofit organizations.
Social Contacts
In choosing the recipients of their contributions, some donors said
that they make their largest gifts only after becoming personally
involved with an organization.
But most donors said they choose which charities to support by
relying on information obtained from peers and other social
contacts, rather than doing research or turning to watchdog
organizations and sources such as GuideStar, the online database of
U.S. charities.
"Knowing someone on the board or from your peer group that
recommends the issue or organization" was rated as important or
very important by 26 of the donors.
Several donors said that time constraints have prevented them from
coming up with adequate criteria to decide which charities deserve
large sums. As a result, those donors said they are not giving away
as much as they could afford.
Many of the donors said they felt a need for better information on
the causes they support, but most said that they do not actively seek
out detailed information on the effectiveness of organizations to
which they give or others involved in the issues they care about.
Others said that the information they had seen on effectiveness was
not helpful.

2. The researchers identified two reasons behind donors' reluctance to
ask for information: They did not want to create inappropriate
expectations on the part of charities, or they feared unwanted
solicitations.
"We were not surprised to discover an acute sense of charity
inundation among participants," the researchers wrote.
"Many described receiving dozens of solicitations on a weekly
basis." In addition, most donors said that it is difficult to extricate
themselves from relations with a charity they have supported for
some time, even when they have decided it is time to stop giving.
Tangible Projects
Donors frequently reported that it is difficult to track the results of
their gifts. Consequently, some said that they intentionally give to
tangible or time-limited projects such as a new building or a
scholarship with easy-to-observe results.
They also expressed some reluctance about asking for data to show
an organization's effectiveness: Many said that they did not want to
burden the charities they support with additional demands for
details, come across as a "high-maintenance" supporter, or imply a
lack of trust in an organization's work.
Asked about formal evaluations, some donors expressed
ambivalence about their usefulness, saying that the data in
evaluations are often poorly presented, do not provide the right
information, or are unnecessary.
When asked about their role as donors, nine of the 33 donors stated
that they do not think of themselves as "philanthropists," despite
giving far more money away every year than most Americans. They
preferred to be known as a "community volunteer" or "community
supporter."
Most donors said that their roles at nonprofit organizations had
grown from simply writing checks to more involvement as their
experience, available time, and wealth grew. Many said that they
aspired to help generate awareness of the causes and organizations
they support, do advocacy work for those causes, and work with
other donors on charitable projects. A report about the survey, "I'm
Not Rockefeller: 33 High Net Worth Philanthropists Discuss Their
Approach to Giving," is available on the Center for High Impact
Philanthropy's Web site.
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