Women Drove 'Rage Giving' After 2016 Election: Study

“These findings suggest that some Americans who were moved to action following the 2016 election expressed that desire to engage with issues they care about through their philanthropy,” WPI director Debra Mesch said in a statement.

“Women led this charge, embracing charitable giving as an extension of their political engagement and using their growing financial assets to advance causes including minority rights, reproductive rights and climate action.”

The WPI was careful to note that charitable organizations in the data were classified according to perceived political leaning as well as relevance to issues raised during the 2016 election cycle. Because this was the first study of its kind, it said, it was unknown whether a similar effect would be seen among relevant conservative charitable organizations in a year with different election results.

Why did women’s charitable giving rise after the 2016 election, compared with men’s giving? The report gave no definitive reasons, but looked to other research for possible explanations.

For one thing, different motivations tend to influence women’s and men’s giving to charity. Women are likelier to be motivated by empathy and altruism, and tend to give to help others, while men focus on the benefits they receive from giving.

Many of the relevant progressive nonprofits in the study focus on “other-centered” issues that may increase their appeal to women, such as immigration rights, minority rights and human rights.

In addition, the report said the WPI had previously used what is called the social identification theory of care in its research, which posits that donors are motivated to give to people with whom they identify.

Because several relevant progressive nonprofits in the data set advocate for or otherwise support women’s reproductive rights, women may increase giving to these causes more than men because they identify more closely with those who benefit from services those nonprofits provide.