Center on Philanthropy Panel Study

The Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS) is the Center on Philanthropy’s signature research project that aims to follow the same families’ philanthropic behaviors throughout their lives. The study provides nonprofit sector professionals, fundraisers, policymakers and public officials a unique perspective of families’ giving and volunteering behaviors over time.

The COPPS is conducted in conjunction with the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research’s Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which has surveyed the same 8,000 households since 1968. As children of these respondents have matured, they have been added to the sample, which now exceeds 7,400 households. In 2001, researchers added the philanthropy component, designed and sponsored by the Center on Philanthropy. We conducted waves of COPPS in 2001, 2003, 2005, and 2007. We hope to repeat the survey every two years pending funding.

The COPPS is the only study that surveys giving and volunteering by the same households over time as families mature, face differing economic circumstances and encounter changes in their family size, health and other factors. It also is the only data available that asks families extensively about their wealth and philanthropy as well as income and other relevant factors.

Because the PSID employs genealogical sampling (those who are born or marry into sample families are included thereafter), the panel will allow researchers to study the transmission of philanthropic behaviors across generations and to study the relationship between helping family members and helping anonymous others. Finally, the panel data will help us distinguish types of donors who respond differently to economic, demographic, and environmental factors.

The Center on Philanthropy Panel Study is supported 100 percent by donations and grants to the Center on Philanthropy. Funding for the research has been provided by Atlantic Philanthropies Inc., Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the John Templeton Foundation, and other donors and funders. Staff time and analysis work have been supported through gifts and grants from Campbell & Company, Lilly Endowment Inc., W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and donors to the Center on Philanthropy Research Fund.

Key Findings

70.2% of households gave in 2005. The average contribution from donor households was $2,047. The largest share of contributed dollars went to religious organizations (59% of the total). More findings from COPPS 2005 (Updated and expanded January 2008 about giving in 2005).

Findings about giving in earlier waves of COPPS are also available

• Average and median amounts of household giving in 2002 (COPPS 2003)
• Distribution of Household Giving by Type of Recipient Organization, 2002 (COPPS 2003)
• Steinberg and Wilhelm, “Patterns of Giving in 2001.”

Data Sets

• COPPS Questionnaires for the following years:
• 2001
• 2003
• 2005
• 2007
• COPPS Data Extracts: 2001, 2003,2005 and 2007.
• COPPS Workshop
• Panel Study of Income Dynamics Data Site

Research using COPPS Data

• Bibliography of Center on Philanthropy Panel Study (COPPS) papers and publications
• Searchable Database of Current Articles and Working Papers on the Center on Philanthropy Panel Study