Women's Philanthropy Institute: Charitable Giving Around the 2016 Election

Politics and charitable giving used to be seen as two separate worlds. But the relationship between the two grew much closer in the aftermath of the 2016 election, when many 501c3 charities anecdotally reported fundraising increases — what the media dubbed “rage giving.”

WPI’s study, Charitable Giving Around the 2016 Election: Does Gender Matter?, is the first report to explore this trend through a gender lens. We found that while the majority of charitable organizations did not experience donation levels above and beyond what would be expected in a non-election year, progressive organizations that engaged with key election issues did see a significant increase. That increase was driven primarily by female donors. In the week after the election, the difference between women and men’s giving to relevant progressive organizations increased six-fold.

These findings suggest that the growing relationship between charitable giving and politics is driven by women, who are using their financial assets to make their voices heard and express values around elections.