The ‘Younger Online Donor’ Myth

In the spring of 2004, Wylie launched a study of five four-year, higher-education institutions and unearthed some surprising results.

“What I expected to find was a younger crowd who was comfortable with the Internet and computers and who had made relatively small gifts as ‘first timers’,” Wylie says. “That’s not what I found. Yes, it’s a younger crowd insofar as more of them are young than old. But, the median level of lifetime giving was much greater for these online givers than for regular givers -- across the five schools.”