The stereotype has existed for about a century: A rich American businessman magnanimously distributes his largesse while his demure wife looks on approvingly, and his will handles the bulk of the family fortune. Planned giving responded accordingly for many decades, seeking donors who fit that profile.
The trouble is that it isn’t true anymore.
Charitable rank
Try this little quiz: Rank the following four categories of donors in terms of their likelihood to leave a charitable bequest.
Married females
Unmarried males
Married males
Unmarried females
According to the latest research, the four categories above are listed in reverse order, with unmarried females at the top by a wide margin: Almost half of all charitable bequests (49.4%) are made by unmarried females. That is more than twice as many as the next group (married males at 20.0%).
The results can also be combined to show that females make far more charitable bequests than males (62.7% to 37.3%), and that unmarried people make far more bequests than married (71.1% to 28.9%).
Source of the statistics
The statistics are from American Charitable Bequest Demographics, a 2013 study by Texas Tech professor and attorney Russell James. James analyzed a massive National Institute on Aging study of more than 26,000 older Americans that has been going on for more than 20 years.
The study tracks respondents’ post-mortem distributions, so it not only looks at people’s charitable plans but at what actually happens when they die.
Unmarried females will increase
Most of the unmarried females leaving bequests are widows, who outnumber widowers by almost four to one, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. This disparity is expected to increase even further as members of the gigantic Baby Boomer generation begin entering their 70s in the next few years and a greater number of women are widowed. In addition, more older women are single by way of divorce or having never married.
The demographics are unassailable: unmarried females are the largest pool for charitable bequests (and should be asked about other types of planned gifts as well). And among married couples, the stereotype of the wife who sits silently in a philanthropic meeting (or any meeting) while the husband calls the shots has all but disappeared.
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