Childless Alumni Are Good Bets for Planned Gifts, Study Finds

Title: The 2016 Planned Giving Study: Building Lasting Legacies: New Insights From Data on Planned Gifts

Organizations: Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy and Pentera, a consulting firm.

Summary: Donors age 45 to 50 are significantly more likely than other age groups to make planned gifts, the study found. Also, donors without children were more likely than those with children to make charitable bequests, and their bequests were greater, on average, than bequests from people who had children.

The study examined more than 9,700 planned gifts pledged or given to five U.S. research universities from 1972 to 2015.

Among the findings:

• About three quarters of planned-gift donors were alumni of the universities where they made their contributions.
• Donors from the silent and baby-boom generations represented 54 percent of current planned giving donors to the universities.
• Donors living in the same state as university were more likely to make more than one planned gift to the same institution.