There is no one-size-fits-all approach to fundraising, according to 19 of the wealthiest donors who were interviewed about how their giving has evolved over time.
The interviews and polling were commissioned by the Carnegie Corporation of New York to supplement today’s announcement of this year’s Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy recipients. Today’s winners include donors Jeff Skoll and Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest while past medal winners have included Paul Allen and Charles Feeney, among many others.
What continues to matter most to these donors is the care fundraisers put into finding out what motivates their giving and what programs or causes are of most interest to them, said Eleanor Dickinson, a researcher with Portland Communications, the firm that conducted the survey.
Most of the philanthropists she spoke with wanted fundraisers to take the time to do their homework and then tailor fundraising approaches to that donor’s interests.
In addition, Ms. Dickinson said, nearly all of the donors her firm interviewed said it’s important that their charitable giving inspire not only their wealthy peers to give but also the middle class, who they say can have as important an impact on the nonprofit world as the rich.
Interviews with winners of the medals from past years — as well as other philanthropists with assets of at least $5 million — revealed that many rich donors trace their giving motivations to early childhood when most were taught the importance of charitable giving by their parents or other adults. Some said their parents encouraged them to give small amounts of money while others were taught about volunteering. As they grew older, their awareness of philanthropy continued.
Most philanthropists said their giving as adults was primarily reactive, meaning they would donate when charities asked or when they were emotionally moved by a need they saw.
But as these donors became wealthier and advanced in their careers, they started to become more active in their giving. Rather than waiting to be asked for a donation, they started seeking out causes that interested them, usually with a strong personal link. That’s when they started paying closer attention to whether charities were using their donations well.
To choose who receives the medals, Carnegie Corporation seeks out people it considers to be heirs to the 19th-century businessman and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie and his goal of doing “real and permanent good” in the world.
The 22 Carnegie institutions in the United States and Europe nominate the medalists and then a selection committee representing seven of those institutions chooses the winners.
This year’s medal recipients include several prominent American philanthropists as well donors from Australia, China, and India:
Chak Meihing, Heungkong Charitable Foundation; Gerry and Marguerite Lenfest, Lenfest Foundation; Azim Premji, Azim Premji Foundation; Julian Robertson, Robertson Foundation; Jeff Skoll, Skoll Foundation; Kristine McDivitt Tompkins, Tompkins Conservation; Shelby White, Leon Levy Foundation; and James Wolfensohn, Wolfensohn Center for Development
To learn more about top philanthropists and big donations, see The Chronicle’s database of gifts of $1 million or more, which is updated regularly. And learn more about the nation’s most generous donors in our Philanthropy 50, the annual ranking of the Americans who give the most to charity every year.