The Intergenerational Transmission of Generosity

Abstract

The Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS) has provided the first data on the giving of parents and their children. COPPS has found that adult children whose parents give currently are much more likely to be donors themselves than are children whose parents do not give currently; they are also far more likely to give more money than children of non-donors. In addition, parents' religious giving emerges as an engine for religious generosity, affecting the religious giving of their adult children, but having no effect on children's "secular" giving (e.g., to United Way, help the poor, education, etc. ). No relationship exists between the adult children's religious affiliation and their secular giving (except among those of the Jewish faith, who also make large donations to secular causes). There is a significant relationship between parents’ secular giving and their adult children's secular giving; Parents who give generously to secular causes have adult children with higher probability of giving to secular causes and who give at higher amounts than are seen among adult children whose parents do not give as generously to secular causes. This suggests a transmission of values for secular giving.