6 Charitable Actions Parents Can Do to Influence Children

For instance, among people who said their parents frequently gave money to a place of worship when they were growing up, 55% themselves gave money to a place of worship in the last year, while those who said their parents occasionally gave money to a place of worship, 39% are donors to a place of worship today. And among those who said their parents rarely or never gave money to a place of worship, 24% themselves currently support a place of worship today.

Financially supporting a nonprofit organization other than a church or place of worship shows a similar pattern. Among people who recalled their parents frequently supporting nonprofit organizations, 52% are themselves donors today. Among those who saw their parents provide occasional support, 46% are now donors. But among people who rarely or never saw their parents model this behavior, only 26% are donors today.

The same kind of effect can be seen based on whether parents talked with their children about the nonprofits they supported and the reasons why. When parents did this frequently, 51% of today’s adults are donors. When parents did this occasionally, 44% are donors. But when parents rarely or never did this, just 32% are donors.

Even among people who have not financially supported a nonprofit organization in the last year, parental behavior appears to have been influential. Among non-donors whose parents gave frequently, 11% are not open to contributing to a nonprofit in the near future, whereas among those whose parents gave occasionally, it is 21%. But among non-donors with parents who rarely or never supported nonprofits, 43% are not open to contributing in the near future.

The same types of parental influence can be seen with volunteering. Forty-nine percent of people who grew up with parents who were frequent volunteers with nonprofit organizations volunteered with a nonprofit in the past 12 months, compared with 31% of those whose parents occasionally volunteered and 20% who who never saw them give their time.

The second method of evaluating the data was through a complex set of statistical tests. Grey Matter Research ran a factor analysis on the 10 parental behaviors, followed by a regression analysis and came up with those six behaviors that influenced children, while four showed no individual correlation.

Once these six behaviors were combined, parents were ranked statistically from low to high in terms of overall behavior. The behavior scores were then compared against the behavior of today’s adults.

One overall finding of great importance emerged, according to the statement: Parents with little to no participation in those six behaviors have about a 25% chance of raising a child who ends up as a donor; while those with frequent participation in many of the above behaviors have a greater than 80% chance of raising a child who turns out to be a donor. Parental involvement is stronger than other predictive factors:  ethnicity, education, household income, age and even whether respondents are currently volunteers.

Not only does parental involvement account for much of the question of whether people give, it also helps predict how generously they give. The more frequently parents engage in each of these six behaviors, the more generously their children end up giving. (The study defined generosity as the total amount of money given to nonprofits over the past 12 months as a percentage of the donor’s household income.)

Russ Reid Company’s McIntyre noted that nonprofit organizations can help ensure the future of charitable giving by encouraging today’s parents to pass along their charitable values to their kids. “It can be tempting to focus only on the needs of today, but we also have to be concerned about future generations,” she said.

Heart of the Donorwas conducted in May 2010 by telephone and online among a nationally representative sample of 2,005 American adults, in both English and Spanish.

Grey Matter Researchhas provided information and research support to for-profit companies and nonprofit organizations since 1996. Russ Reid, a 46-year-old firm, is the fundraising partner of some 200 nonprofit organizations across the U.S. and Canada.