Our research focuses on increasing knowledge about the nonprofit sector and improving the practices of giving, volunteering, fundraising, nonprofit organization management, and other aspects of philanthropic activity.
Browse some of our current research projects below.
Giving USA is the longest-running, most comprehensive analysis of the sources and uses of U.S. charitable giving. This periodical rigorously estimates donations by individuals, corporations, foundations, and bequests to 1.1 million charities and 220,000 U.S. religious organizations.
Visit the Giving USA website View the Giving USA 2021 press release
The Philanthropy Outlook provides nonprofit scholars and practitioners with critical information about the charitable giving environment in 2021 and 2022.
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The Philanthropy Panel Study (PPS) is the best and most accurate resource for measuring the U.S. general population’s charitable giving and volunteering. This signature panel study has tracked the same families’ giving and volunteering over time, alongside dynamic personal and socioeconomic factors informing philanthropic behavior.
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The study looks at the share of households who gave, the amounts donor households gave, and the percent of income households gave before and after the Great Recession. The report offers key insights for nonprofits and donors as they face new and evolving factors affecting the philanthropic sector in the United States.
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The Giving Environment: Understanding Pre-Pandemic Trends in Charitable Giving, Data on Declining US Donor Participation, our new report funded by a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, analyzes five national datasets to understand trends in which American households donate to charity and how much in the years leading up to the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief is also the first to analyze new data from the 2019 Philanthropy Panel Study on giving in 2018. The research brief offers key insights for nonprofits about the state of the philanthropic sector before the major social, economic, and political changes that took place in 2020. Fact sheets about the 2019 PPS data, about giving in 2018, are available along with the report on the school’s GenerosityForLife website.
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The Everyday Donors of Color: Diverse Philanthropy During Times of Change report shares findings on the motivations and behaviors of donors of color in recent years. These findings highlight the importance of developing a more inclusive set of philanthropic practices for organizations in the aftermath of the pandemic. The report incorporates a systematic review of existing literature, data from a national survey of American households, insights from focus groups with diverse donors, and two case studies on the impact of mutual aid.
View the report View the infographic View the executive summary
With more than 45 million Americans living in poverty, according to government measures, the Human Needs Index will serve as a powerful tool to track basic human need with different indicators and less lag time than conventional government data.
See the latest update
Philanthropic sector leaders, policy makers and others are interested in gaining better understanding of the various potential effects of creating a charitable giving tax incentive for taxpayers who do not itemize deductions on their federal income taxes.
See the Charitable Giving and Tax Incentives analysis
View the full report See more Tax Policy and Giving research
Crowdfunding has the potential to extend opportunities for generosity to a wider audience because of its digital presence, the apparent ease of using such platforms, and the ability to connect donors to both causes and individuals they wish to support. Moreover, as the study finds that a majority of donors to crowdfunding platforms in 2019 contributed to help a family member, close friend, or a stranger, crowdfunding amplifies traditional charitable giving beyond giving to institutions to include direct giving to individuals.
View the report View the infographic Blog: Crowdfunding in the digital age
Webinar: Charitable Crowdfunding: Who gives, to what, and why?
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Donor-advised funds (DAFs) foster a unique partnership among nonprofits, donors, and DAF sponsoring organizations to achieve philanthropic goals. DAFs are also one of the fastest growing charitable vehicles and most talked about topics in the field of philanthropy. It is essential to understand donors’ and nonprofit organizations’ perceptions of DAFs. Perceptions not only affect how and when DAFs are used, but they impact policymakers’ decisions about rules and regulations, thereby influencing the long-term efficacy of DAFs as a philanthropic vehicle.
Explore the key findings View the full report
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The Study of Philanthropy biennially examines the giving patterns, priorities, and attitudes of America’s wealthiest households. The 2021 study is the eighth in a series written and researched in partnership with Bank of America These studies, the first of which was issued in 2006, have set the benchmark for research on the giving practices of affluent households.
Initial findings from the 2021 Bank of America Study of Philanthropy: Charitable Giving by Affluent Households report titled Affluent Americans Expand Generosity during the Pandemic explores the ways in which households responded to this historic period. Findings of the full study on affluent Americans’ philanthropy in 2020 is scheduled to launch in fall 2021.
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This report analyzes the number, size and recipients of gifts of $1 million or more given by individuals, foundations and corporations in the United States, United Kingdom, Russia, Middle East (Gulf Cooperation Council), China, Hong Kong and for the first time, Singapore.
Research from the Women's Philanthropy Institute explores why, how, where, and when women give.
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The 2016 Planned Giving Study investigates the characteristics of planned gifts and the likelihood of donors making such gifts to nonprofit organizations at various points over the course of a lifetime. In partnership with Pentera, Inc., this study draws upon unique data on planned gifts and donors from higher education institutions in the U.S. Findings from the study offer insights and implications for fundraising professionals to help donors achieve both their philanthropic aspirations and their financial objectives.
View the 2016 Planned Giving Study View more Planned Giving research
Giving in Chicago, a report in conjunction with The Chicago Community Trust, is the first comprehensive study of individual, corporate and foundation giving in the six-county metropolitan Chicago region. It examines patterns of charitable giving by households and corporations across the region in 2013, and grant making by foundations and public charities in the region.
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The first study of its kind to examine charitable giving patterns, priorities, and attitudes of Puerto Rican households, Giving in Puerto Rico is the result of a collaboration among Flamboyan Foundation (Flamboyan), Kinesis Foundation, and the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy.
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The school has collected and tracked extensive data on disaster philanthropy from U.S. individuals, corporations, foundations, and nonprofit organizations to major domestic and overseas disasters since 2001, including the September 11 attacks, the 2004 Asian tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and the Pakistan earthquake in 2005, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the Japanese earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2011, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and the 2013 Philippine Typhoon Haiyan.
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The National Study of Congregations’ Economic Practices is the largest and most comprehensive, nationally representative study of U.S. congregations’ finances in more than a generation.
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The Changing Landscape of U.S. Cross-Border Philanthropy explores the changing dynamics of U.S. philanthropy to international causes. The report provides an overview of academic literature on U.S. cross-border philanthropy and international partnership, analyzes current trends on U.S. international giving, and identifies main characteristics of the United States Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Office of American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (USAID/ASHA) grantees and unsuccessful applicants between 2015 and 2017.
View the press release View more International Philanthropy research
