The Real Charitable Debate – Who Gives more; Men or Women?
Today I had the opportunity to take BiddingForGood’s survey results to all the viewers of FOX 25 Morning News here in Boston. What was I talking about? The battle of the sexes as it pertains to charitable giving.
The 2012 independent study showed new evidence that men give more and more often to charitable causes (who knew?). Up until now, we have seen a lot of research and studies that reflect women being the more charitable of the genders. So why the difference? Many studies do show women being more charitable in higher income brackets. This specific study surveyed members of the general public. Here are some highlights.
- 52 percent of men who donate to charity say they do so every week or month compared to only 42 percent of women.
- 62 percent of men give more than $500 a year to charity compared to just 46 percent of women.
- When it comes to a making one-time contribution, women still report giving less.
Now, as a woman and someone who works in the nonprofit space, I was shocked to see these results. I then started to think about all the things that have not been taken into consideration. For instance, woman still make 80 cents on the dollar comparatively to men. How about all the volunteer work women do in conjunction with monetary contributions? According to the website, volunteeriningamerica.gov, a volunteer hour is worth anywhere between $17-$22/ hour. We know at BiddingForGood that our charitable shoppers are predominately female. We also know that the nonprofits and schools in which we work with have a large volunteer base comprised of predominately women.
Collectively, volunteer hours in the US add up to $173 billion worth of work. I say, if the women are the real driving force behind this number, then just maybe they are the more charitable gender.
For more survey result information, please check out our latest infographic.