04/01/2004
The importance of giving back to the community has increased among wealthy Americans since 9/11, according to Wealth + Values, a report issued jointly by HNW, a wealth marketing firm with offices in New York, Boston and San Francisco, and the Community Foundations of America, a Louisville, Ky.-based organization that aids community foundations.
In a 2003 survey, 63 percent of the respondents said they felt an obligation to give back to their communities, up from just 50 percent in 2000, when the last survey was taken. Not everyone thought highly of charity, however; 14 percent of those questioned considered taxes their philanthropic donations.
Women and men differed in the types of charities they tend to support. Both named educational institutions and health-related agencies among the top charitable causes. Men also ranked religious or faith-based organizations near the top, while women were more likely to give to children and youth services. Men also tended to list political or advocacy organizations and arts or cultural charities, while women gave more for women’s organizations, animal rights, environmental causes and disability charities.
Family and relationships also gained in importance. The report found that although the majority of affluent Americans want to work, the demands of career are less appealing than they were in 2000.
In 2000, 80 percent of the respondents identified career satisfaction as one of their top priorities, but that fell to 69 percent in 2003. When it came to family and friends, 72 percent ranked relationships as very important to their overall happiness, up from 68 percent in 2000. Women aged 45 to 64 tended to value career satisfaction as more important to happiness than younger or older women.
The
average respondent worked 44 hours a week, although 24 percent said they worked
part-time and 19 percent worked more than 60 hours a week. Financial
security was the primary reason for working, but challenges and satisfaction
also ranked high on the list.
When it comes to careers and wealth, nearly
one-third in the survey credited “being in the right place at the right time”
for at least some of their success.
Other findings in the survey:
• An overwhelming majority of
parents—84 percent—want their children to learn the value of money through hard
work. However, that was a drop from 95 percent in 2000.
• Sixty-one
percent of the parents in 2003 worried about spoiling their children; that
figure was 56 percent in 2000.
• While half of the respondents said
spiritual or religious faith is important to them, and three-quarters believe in
a higher power, only one-third said they attend religious services once or more
a month.
• Economic optimism rose substantially: 66 percent of the
respondents in 2003 expected the economy to improve within a year compared with
43 percent in 2000.
The survey, conducted on the Internet by Harris
Interactive and released in October 2003, questioned 712 investors with
annual income of at least $150,000 and assets of $500,000.