Pandemic led men to be more charitable, survey finds

Women are still more generous than men and became even more interested in philanthropy in 2020.

The onslaught of the pandemic last year inspired a renewed sense of generosity, with 84% of women saying giving is important to them, a gain of nine percentage points, while 81% of men said giving is important, which was an 11-percentage-point jump, according to a survey by Fidelity Charitable.

In addition, 43% of men said they gave notably more to charity in 2020 than they had the previous year, compared to 34% of women.

“Women will continue to lead charitable giving decisions in many households, but the innate desire to make a difference in the world is more apparent than ever in all donors,” said Pamela Norley, president of Fidelity Charitable. “Men and women still engage in giving very differently, and there are ways that women can do even more.”

Among women, 86% said they wished they could do more to create positive social change, and women participated in many giving activities at higher rates than men, including volunteerism. Two-thirds (67%) of women reported volunteering recently, compared to 56% of men.

More women made nonfinancial gifts, bought from socially responsible businesses or donated through social media or online giving platforms. Women were also more likely than men to rank hunger (45% vs. 34%), access to basic health services (34% vs. 27%) and access to shelter or affordable housing (22% vs. 16%) as the top challenges facing the world.

In spite of participating in many giving activities at higher rates, women were less likely than men to be aware of or engage in many financial strategies that could enable greater impact, Fidelity said in a release.

“Only 17% of women made an impact investment, compared to a quarter of men. Similarly, among women who owned stocks or bonds, 35% were unaware that these assets could have been donated to charity, strategy that potentially minimizes the donor’s tax burden and enables them to make a larger donation,” Fidelity said.

[More: Strategies for maximizing clients’ charitable impact in 2021]