Advisor 05/13/08_Quote

“Our findings show that there is a wide gulf between donors’ intended and actual giving. The largest segment of respondents (47 percent) said that their primary reason for giving to charities was to assist the needy. Yet in 2006, these donors dedicated only 6 percent of their giving to organizations that aim to meet people’s basic needs in the United States, and sent just 2 percent of their donations to organizations that aid people in other countries. At the same time, they gave the bulk of their charitable contributions (60 percent) to religious causes.

Respondents whose main philanthropic goals were to make their community or the world a better place (38 percent of the sample), to provide services that government doesn’t (5 percent), or to achieve other ends also made most of their donations to religious organizations.”

— Ellen Konar, Sheryl Sandberg and Melissa Brown, writing in the Winter 2008 edition of the Stanford Social Innovation Review. The article, “Destination Unknown” speaks to the results of a survey conducted by SSIR and Google regarding the discrepancy between donor intent and actual giving.