NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

By Andy Segedin

Impact investing is becoming an increasingly popular way for supporters to drive social change beyond their other philanthropic efforts. Men are more likely than women, however, to view socially-conscious investing and donating as an either-or proposition as opposed to complements to one another.

Nearly one-fifth (18.9 percent) of single males look at impact investing as a replacement for donating as compared to just 11.4 percent of women, according to “How Women and Men Approach Impact Investing,” a new report by the Women’s Philanthropy Institute at the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. Couples seek to replace donations with their impact investing 12.2 percent of the time. Households in which men lead the decision-making see impact investing as a substitute (15.2 percent) more often than when decisions are driven by women (10.7 percent) or decided jointly (11.6 percent).

The report is based on data from the Bank of America/U.S. Trust Study of High Net Worth Philanthropy, conducted biennially by the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. The report is developed from the 2016 data of 1,435 randomly sampled households. The average household income in the sample was $331,156 with $16.8 million average net worth. The average respondent age was just younger than 60 years old.

Photo courtesy of Steven Depolo.