How committed to individual giving are the wealthy from Europe, the United States, Asia and the Middle East? What are their common characteristics? Which causes are the most popular? In its second year, the “2014 BNP Paribas Individual Philanthropy Index” measures the commitment of individual philanthropists. This year’s report focused more specifically on the importance of timing from their point of view and where they are on their philanthropic journey. 

The overall ‘commitment measurement’ of individual philanthropists reveals that the US, Europe and Asia are roughly halfway to a philanthropic ideal, while the Middle East seems to be about a third of the way there – a score that is ‘adversely affected by lower points on promotion but may not fully acknowledge the strong cultural heritage of philanthropy in the region’.

The scores are:
•    53.2 US
•    46.3 Europe
•    42.4 Asia
•    29.4 Middle East

An interesting finding is that the Middle East is the region where philanthropists take the longest-term view. More than half of all philanthropic donors are prepared to wait more than 25 years to see the impact of their philanthropic actions, while donors in Asia, the US and Europe expect to see faster results, ie in under 10 years.

Both the full report and summary report are attached. A short video is available from the following website https://wealthmanagement.bnpparibas.com/public/en/about-us-index.