November 29, 2023 • 17 mins
Dianne Chipps Bailey, National Philanthropic Executive at Bank of America Private Bank, discusses charitable giving by affluent US households. Talia Fox, CEO of Kusi Global, talks about her book The Power of Conscious Connection: 4 Habits to Transform How You Live and Lead.
Hosts: Carol Massar and Tim Stenovec. Producer: Paul Brennan.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck
on Bloomberg Radio. We've been talking about Charlie Munger and
as Noah Bouhier in his story on Charlie talks about
how Munger made a lot of different donations. He promoted
abortion rights, education, He served as chairman of the good
(00:20):
Smaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, multimillion dollar requests to the
University of Michigan, University of California at Santa Barbara Barbara.
We talked about the housing facility that he proposed, but
it was very philanthropic.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Tim, he was philanthropic and he was also I think
many people would argue quite the leader. And that's what
we're talking about with our next guest is leading the
way here. She's the founder and CEO of a consulting
firm that's worked with the likes of Northorpe, Grumman, Lockheed, Martin,
the SEC, the US Army, US Marine Corps, Booz, Allen Hamilton,
and more, including Harvard and Howard Universities. The company's name,
(00:56):
KUSSI is an acronym for knowledge, Understanding, Strategy and Implementation,
and in the company's own words, is quote committed to transforming,
inspiring and cultivating leaders around the world.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
So let's get to it. Her new book is The
Power of Conscious Connection for Habits to transform how you
live and lead. We have with us Talia Fox. She's
the chief executive officer of the consultancy Cousy Global and
a fellow at Harvard University. Talia, nice to have you
here with us. You know, we're talking about Charlie Munger,
quite a leader and someone who also kind of seemed
(01:28):
to live to the fullest and was very honest and
transparent about his views. Tell us a little bit about
how you are thinking about how people can transform how
they live and lead.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, you know, it's amazing with his death, he almost
reached one hundred years old, and what you were describing
about all of the giving that he did with his
time here. That is what conscious connection is about. It's
about being conscious of what's happening in the world and
the needs and being connected to the power that you
have to change. And that power can look different from
many different people.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
So let's think about I want to think about your
own journey as a leader, because you started this consultancy
quite a few years ago and you work with companies
to help cultivate leaders and it's not just companies that
you work with, but you also offer these online learning modules.
Can you talk a little bit about your own journey
as a leader, because when I speak to people who
(02:23):
do this type of work, I always want to get
an understanding of Okay, well, how do they develop themselves
into somebody who can actually teach these skills.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
So my background is in psychology, so I really studied.
I started off in nonprofit studying the impact that leadership
has on real lives, and I started doing keynotes speaking
events for nonprofit organizations. But I was very connected to
the fact that leadership decisions impact. I was able to
look into children's eyes and see the impact of leadership decisions.
(02:52):
I've had quite an interesting journey of being a single mom,
of having to really find my way and study what
matters and what makes a difference in achievement. And so
I've read literally hundreds of books and I have been
on a hunt for my entire twenty year career, twenty
plus years finding out what are those core ideas, what
(03:13):
are those core things that really make a difference in
how we live and lead? And that is really what
this book is about I'm sharing those stories, the stories
of achievement and the hack that I call it to
a great leadership and a great life.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
So let's get to the four habits. So talk to us,
walk us through them, if you will.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So it's very interesting because the four habits make up
the acronym love. But that absolutely was a beautiful coincidence.
So the four habits are listening, observe, value, and engage,
And each of these habits is connected to a leadership
skill that we want to master. So listening is connected
to emotional intelligence that's very critical for our success, and
(03:55):
so I outline in the book how to do that.
Observation is cannected to systems thinking. This opportunity to be
to see patterns and to understand how interdependent we are.
Values is connected to cultural competence, our capacity of to
value people, to value connection to value differences, to really
(04:16):
be able to see all the big issues happening in
the world and understand how adapt how to adapt our
world views to those and then lastly engage. The real
critical key value, particularly in the world we are in today,
is to be able to communicate in such a way
that connects instead of divides and so that habit makes
up the acronym love, which I don't know my Department
(04:38):
of Sense folks on how I feel about that acronym.
I was actually cringing at how fluffy it was. But
when I saw it right there, I said, oh, it
makes up love. I wasn't going to shy away from it,
and so we're sticking to it. So we'll see if
leaders can handle the experience of that being so conscious
connected in their strategy.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It's so funny because you know, you do work with
clients like the Department of Defense, the US Army, the
US Marine Corps. What's the reaction to the folks when
you share with them this methodology, Well, our.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Our firm kusai kusi knowledge as you've shared understanding strategy implementation.
That is really that has been the strategic approach that
we use when we go and do culture transformation projects.
So this book I wrote not only for my clients
but also for It's for the people, and so it's
really about on an individual level and on a leadership level,
(05:30):
what are those habits that we need to master on
a regular basis, on a daily basis to impact change.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Talian.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
You know, we talk with leaders all the time, you know,
and I'm curious about when you're working with the defense
contractors do a lot of government work, it looks like
consultants university. I mean, what is it that people often
come to you and say, Okay, here's we've got this situation,
here's what's wrong, or here's what's wrong with our leadership?
Like help us? Or do they not even know?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
What's interesting is that, you know, I really wish that
people would be more pulled by purpose as opposed to
push by stress. But typically when people do come to Kusai,
there's something happening in the news. There is racial issues,
social issues, political issues, and you're seeing a huge divide
or even bleeding out executives. You're seeing problems, serious problems.
(06:19):
We actually call it a culture shot. They need to
be triaged if you will to get the culture back
on board. You've got a lot of conflict. People aren't
talking to each other. That's when people say, okay, who
do you go to? You go to Kusai for those
kinds of challenges, and we really come in with sort
of skills and systems to support in a full scale
culture transformation.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
So what are the issues right now that the companies
that are coming to you right now are telling you
that they're facing.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
So right now, we're dealing, of course, with a lot
of diversity, equity and inclusion issues, particularly around conversations about politics,
conversations that are really highly tense, and so there is
this opportunity. I mean, in the government, they have an
act in a law that you're not supposed to talk
about these things. But people know their social media and
(07:11):
so one of the things that we're doing is how
do you have these difficult conversations. How do you say
authentic without having to get into the weeds of what's
actually happening in the world. So how do you build
those relationships in a way that feels professional but that
also feels authentic.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well, I'm curious, you know, I'm glad you went there,
because it's fascinating. We have conversations and I feel like
they certainly picked up momentum when it comes to diversity
inclusion coming off of the pandemic, coming off of George Floyd.
It's amazing how here we are, how many years out
from that, how many years before that that we were
having those conversations, and yet we still have a problem.
(07:49):
I don't know you talk with leaders, you work with companies.
What is the fix so that we don't have to
have the conversation anymore, because it just is.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
I don't think it's a fix. I think it's it's
actually almost like hygiene, cultural hygiene. I love that you
have new people coming into an organization. This is something
where where people we have feelings, we have triggers, we
have experiences, we have life, and so we really need
to treat it as a constant opportunity to create space
to be able to build this environment where people are
(08:22):
committed to innovation, committed to growth, committed to being their
best selves. But in order to do that, the soil
has to be We have some very specific communication strategies
and ways that this culture operates, and we need to
make sure that everyone is on the same page. I
kind of like to use the very plain language of
in this house, this is how we behave in this house.
(08:43):
This is how we talk to each other, and that's
that's the corporate speak. This is what we do here together,
and this is how we have these kinds of conversations
and connect and deal with each other.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Corporate hygiene. Is that what you said?
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yes, I just like I like that.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
I like that, right, It's just it just is like
you do it because you're yeah, you have to.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
You should be gotta brush your teeth.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
You gotta brush your.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Teeth actly And using that analogy, the more you keep
brushing your teeth, you have less cavities, less places you
want to be going on a wonderful trip somewhere, and
you have to go get a root canal. But that's
what organizations are dealing with right now. I will tell
you if I was leading in any large organization, I
would not lead a team that has not been trained
on how to manage and communicate. I think in this
(09:27):
day and age, it's almost like not having a website
or people not being able to use a computer.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
It's a great way, but it's a great way of
thinking about It's a different mindset, and I think that's
really important in terms of changing ultimately the outcome. Tell
you Fox, thank you so much, Chief executive Officer the
consultancy Kusai Global, a fellow at Harvard And of course
her book is the Power of Conscious Connections for Habits
to Transform how you live and lead. Tim and I
mentioned earlier Charlie's been talking of course about the passing
(09:53):
of Charlie Munger, who, along with Warren Buffett, really built
Berkshire into the behemoth it is today. But we also
have talked about how Charlie Munger was also very philanthropic
and took positions on different rights, whether it was abortion rights,
which he promoted, he talked about education, served as chairman
of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, but he
(10:15):
also gave multimillion dollar gifts to various universities, so education
was certainly front and center, which is something we just
kind of think about tim more broadly, if you will
on this Giving Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah, Giving Tuesday is that decade old grassroots movement and
it encourages people to give to charities on the Tuesday
following Thanksgiving. Carol, maybe you've gotten some emails today from
charitable organizations or nonprofits that are trying to I won't
want to say take advantage, but you really lean into
This day is one that is one where people give
away a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Well, and I think about as we all get ready
to spend money on gifts and so on and so forth,
to think about giving back to society more largely and
more broadly. Our next guest has a study on giving
trends of affluent households and has found that charitable giving
among this set is now above pre pandemic levels. Diane
Chips Billy is National Philanthropic Executive at Bank of America
Private Bank. She's with us on Zoom from Charlotte, Charlotte,
(11:09):
North Carolina. Diane, nice to have you here with Tim
and myself, you know, and thinking about the story and
thinking about Charlie Munger specifically, tell us a little bit
about the demographics among affluent households who gives the most.
Give us an idea of just kind of that background,
if you.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Will, absolutely, Carol, and thank you to Tim as well
for having me today. I'm thrilled to share more about
the Bank of America study of philanthropy, But before I
do that, I think providing a little bit of context
into why this research into affluent Americans wealthy Americans is
so important. If you look at donor participation stretching back
(11:51):
to before the Great Recession, you know, back in the
six seven era, we saw two thirds of Americans overall
general population making contributions to charitable organizations every year. Now
that general participation number is down less than fifty percent,
so really a substantial decline. That's why days like Giving
(12:14):
Tuesday are so so important.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
I want to make sure.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I want to make sure Diana get that that number right.
You're saying. Post financial crisis, we saw charitable giving reach
a certain level, and now since then it's down a
little less than fifty percent.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
So it's the overall participation in giving is less than
fifty percent. It's around forty nine percent when you and
that's gone down from two thirds before.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yes, yeah, thanks you for the city.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
But when you look at giving from wealthy Americans, we
see that eighty five percent compared to the forty nine
percent in the general population, are supporting charitable organizations year
over year. So when you think about people like Charlie Hunger,
you know that it's those donors that are really carrying
(13:03):
the day. Nonprofits increasingly relying on a smaller and much
more affluent circle of supporters.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Why is it down though?
Speaker 4 (13:12):
There are lots of reasons, you know. The first, of course,
is the pressure of income and wealth inequality. We're seeing
other reasons that matter as well. That first is trust.
When we look at trust and societal institutions among affluent Americans.
Our research tells us that twenty one percent of affluent
(13:34):
Americans have a great deal of trust in nonprofits to
be able to meet the challenges of the day. That
twenty one percent is the highest percentage if you look
at trust in Congress as for example, only four percent
of the affluent Americans that we studied said they had
a great deal of confidence in Congress to solve our issues.
(13:56):
But still that that represents a decline and trust overall.
You know, another reason that we think that giving is
declining that's really so interesting are changing patterns of religion.
You know, in our research, we know that religion continues
to get the biggest piece of the pie from aflin Americans.
When it comes to prioritizing their giving. The most giving
(14:17):
goes to religion, but it's coming from a smaller group
of donors. Participation in giving has declined substantially, But those
who are giving are giving with urgency and with enthusiasm,
with medium gifts that are six times higher than the
next category, which is basic needs. But so many people
(14:37):
learn patterns of benevolence and practices of benevolence in worshiping communities.
And so when we see declines in participation. There you
saw the Pew research right, which says that now thirty
percent of Americans classify themselves as nuns.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
N n e say use for a second, Claire by.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Nuns and nees, and so that's atheists, agnostic and spiritual
but not religious. So you know, when you see those
increasing rates of people who do not identify with worship communities,
you know, do we lose those patterns and traditions of charity.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
How does something like war, geopolitics, climate change, how do
these things impact the giving world?
Speaker 4 (15:20):
So let's use global unrest and war as for example.
So we do see surges in giving when it is
being responsive to headlines, right, that urgency of what we're
seeing in Israel and Palestine with humanitarian need, et cetera.
That does inspire a surge in participation in giving and
(15:43):
in generous giving for the time period of the news cycle. So,
Tim and Carol, I'm here to tell you that the
work that you're doing is incredibly important to focus on
individuals where that generosity is needed most, because we do
see a bit of retraction when the media moves on
to different news stories. However, the uncertainty that also comes
(16:09):
from geopolitical conflict and unrest does also have an overall
chilling effect as it relates to giving, as do challenges
in the economy. So if you look at twenty twenty two,
which is the period in which we studied, that are
covers our research. You know, remember I don't have to
tell you market volatility and define interest rates inflation, even
(16:34):
among affluent Americans, those uncertainties in the economy, in geopolitics,
that does cause a bit of a retraction and a
little more caution in getting.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, no, yeah, we often see that right when there's
little nervousness, and certainly in terms of the outlook and
we are at a time if we're trying to figure
out kind of what happens next. Dane, thanks so much,
really appreciate did Happy holidays. Diane Chips Bailey, National Philanthropic
Executive at Bank of America Private Bank, on Zoom from Charlotte,
North Carolina on this Giving Tuesday, which is.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
What I'm thinking about because I haven't given my to
my organizations yet sometimes yet before thee.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I know, the end of the year, that's when everybody's like, exactly,
get it done. Stick around everybody. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 3 (17:24):
H
This is Bloomberg BusinessWeek with Carol Messer and Tim Stenebeck
on Bloomberg Radio. We've been talking about Charlie Munger and
as Noah Bouhier in his story on Charlie talks about
how Munger made a lot of different donations. He promoted
abortion rights, education, He served as chairman of the good
(00:20):
Smaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, multimillion dollar requests to the
University of Michigan, University of California at Santa Barbara Barbara.
We talked about the housing facility that he proposed, but
it was very philanthropic.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Tim, he was philanthropic and he was also I think
many people would argue quite the leader. And that's what
we're talking about with our next guest is leading the
way here. She's the founder and CEO of a consulting
firm that's worked with the likes of Northorpe, Grumman, Lockheed, Martin,
the SEC, the US Army, US Marine Corps, Booz, Allen Hamilton,
and more, including Harvard and Howard Universities. The company's name,
(00:56):
KUSSI is an acronym for knowledge, Understanding, Strategy and Implementation,
and in the company's own words, is quote committed to transforming,
inspiring and cultivating leaders around the world.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
So let's get to it. Her new book is The
Power of Conscious Connection for Habits to transform how you
live and lead. We have with us Talia Fox. She's
the chief executive officer of the consultancy Cousy Global and
a fellow at Harvard University. Talia, nice to have you
here with us. You know, we're talking about Charlie Munger,
quite a leader and someone who also kind of seemed
(01:28):
to live to the fullest and was very honest and
transparent about his views. Tell us a little bit about
how you are thinking about how people can transform how
they live and lead.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
Yeah, you know, it's amazing with his death, he almost
reached one hundred years old, and what you were describing
about all of the giving that he did with his
time here. That is what conscious connection is about. It's
about being conscious of what's happening in the world and
the needs and being connected to the power that you
have to change. And that power can look different from
many different people.
Speaker 2 (02:02):
So let's think about I want to think about your
own journey as a leader, because you started this consultancy
quite a few years ago and you work with companies
to help cultivate leaders and it's not just companies that
you work with, but you also offer these online learning modules.
Can you talk a little bit about your own journey
as a leader, because when I speak to people who
(02:23):
do this type of work, I always want to get
an understanding of Okay, well, how do they develop themselves
into somebody who can actually teach these skills.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
So my background is in psychology, so I really studied.
I started off in nonprofit studying the impact that leadership
has on real lives, and I started doing keynotes speaking
events for nonprofit organizations. But I was very connected to
the fact that leadership decisions impact. I was able to
look into children's eyes and see the impact of leadership decisions.
(02:52):
I've had quite an interesting journey of being a single mom,
of having to really find my way and study what
matters and what makes a difference in achievement. And so
I've read literally hundreds of books and I have been
on a hunt for my entire twenty year career, twenty
plus years finding out what are those core ideas, what
(03:13):
are those core things that really make a difference in
how we live and lead? And that is really what
this book is about I'm sharing those stories, the stories
of achievement and the hack that I call it to
a great leadership and a great life.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
So let's get to the four habits. So talk to us,
walk us through them, if you will.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
So it's very interesting because the four habits make up
the acronym love. But that absolutely was a beautiful coincidence.
So the four habits are listening, observe, value, and engage,
And each of these habits is connected to a leadership
skill that we want to master. So listening is connected
to emotional intelligence that's very critical for our success, and
(03:55):
so I outline in the book how to do that.
Observation is cannected to systems thinking. This opportunity to be
to see patterns and to understand how interdependent we are.
Values is connected to cultural competence, our capacity of to
value people, to value connection to value differences, to really
(04:16):
be able to see all the big issues happening in
the world and understand how adapt how to adapt our
world views to those and then lastly engage. The real
critical key value, particularly in the world we are in today,
is to be able to communicate in such a way
that connects instead of divides and so that habit makes
up the acronym love, which I don't know my Department
(04:38):
of Sense folks on how I feel about that acronym.
I was actually cringing at how fluffy it was. But
when I saw it right there, I said, oh, it
makes up love. I wasn't going to shy away from it,
and so we're sticking to it. So we'll see if
leaders can handle the experience of that being so conscious
connected in their strategy.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
It's so funny because you know, you do work with
clients like the Department of Defense, the US Army, the
US Marine Corps. What's the reaction to the folks when
you share with them this methodology, Well, our.
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Our firm kusai kusi knowledge as you've shared understanding strategy implementation.
That is really that has been the strategic approach that
we use when we go and do culture transformation projects.
So this book I wrote not only for my clients
but also for It's for the people, and so it's
really about on an individual level and on a leadership level,
(05:30):
what are those habits that we need to master on
a regular basis, on a daily basis to impact change.
Speaker 4 (05:36):
Talian.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
You know, we talk with leaders all the time, you know,
and I'm curious about when you're working with the defense
contractors do a lot of government work, it looks like
consultants university. I mean, what is it that people often
come to you and say, Okay, here's we've got this situation,
here's what's wrong, or here's what's wrong with our leadership?
Like help us? Or do they not even know?
Speaker 3 (05:56):
What's interesting is that, you know, I really wish that
people would be more pulled by purpose as opposed to
push by stress. But typically when people do come to Kusai,
there's something happening in the news. There is racial issues,
social issues, political issues, and you're seeing a huge divide
or even bleeding out executives. You're seeing problems, serious problems.
(06:19):
We actually call it a culture shot. They need to
be triaged if you will to get the culture back
on board. You've got a lot of conflict. People aren't
talking to each other. That's when people say, okay, who
do you go to? You go to Kusai for those
kinds of challenges, and we really come in with sort
of skills and systems to support in a full scale
culture transformation.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
So what are the issues right now that the companies
that are coming to you right now are telling you
that they're facing.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
So right now, we're dealing, of course, with a lot
of diversity, equity and inclusion issues, particularly around conversations about politics,
conversations that are really highly tense, and so there is
this opportunity. I mean, in the government, they have an
act in a law that you're not supposed to talk
about these things. But people know their social media and
(07:11):
so one of the things that we're doing is how
do you have these difficult conversations. How do you say
authentic without having to get into the weeds of what's
actually happening in the world. So how do you build
those relationships in a way that feels professional but that
also feels authentic.
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Well, I'm curious, you know, I'm glad you went there,
because it's fascinating. We have conversations and I feel like
they certainly picked up momentum when it comes to diversity
inclusion coming off of the pandemic, coming off of George Floyd.
It's amazing how here we are, how many years out
from that, how many years before that that we were
having those conversations, and yet we still have a problem.
(07:49):
I don't know you talk with leaders, you work with companies.
What is the fix so that we don't have to
have the conversation anymore, because it just is.
Speaker 3 (07:59):
I don't think it's a fix. I think it's it's
actually almost like hygiene, cultural hygiene. I love that you
have new people coming into an organization. This is something
where where people we have feelings, we have triggers, we
have experiences, we have life, and so we really need
to treat it as a constant opportunity to create space
to be able to build this environment where people are
(08:22):
committed to innovation, committed to growth, committed to being their
best selves. But in order to do that, the soil
has to be We have some very specific communication strategies
and ways that this culture operates, and we need to
make sure that everyone is on the same page. I
kind of like to use the very plain language of
in this house, this is how we behave in this house.
(08:43):
This is how we talk to each other, and that's
that's the corporate speak. This is what we do here together,
and this is how we have these kinds of conversations
and connect and deal with each other.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
Corporate hygiene. Is that what you said?
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Yes, I just like I like that.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
I like that, right, It's just it just is like
you do it because you're yeah, you have to.
Speaker 2 (09:03):
You should be gotta brush your teeth.
Speaker 1 (09:05):
You gotta brush your.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
Teeth actly And using that analogy, the more you keep
brushing your teeth, you have less cavities, less places you
want to be going on a wonderful trip somewhere, and
you have to go get a root canal. But that's
what organizations are dealing with right now. I will tell
you if I was leading in any large organization, I
would not lead a team that has not been trained
on how to manage and communicate. I think in this
(09:27):
day and age, it's almost like not having a website
or people not being able to use a computer.
Speaker 1 (09:30):
It's a great way, but it's a great way of
thinking about It's a different mindset, and I think that's
really important in terms of changing ultimately the outcome. Tell
you Fox, thank you so much, Chief executive Officer the
consultancy Kusai Global, a fellow at Harvard And of course
her book is the Power of Conscious Connections for Habits
to Transform how you live and lead. Tim and I
mentioned earlier Charlie's been talking of course about the passing
(09:53):
of Charlie Munger, who, along with Warren Buffett, really built
Berkshire into the behemoth it is today. But we also
have talked about how Charlie Munger was also very philanthropic
and took positions on different rights, whether it was abortion rights,
which he promoted, he talked about education, served as chairman
of the Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles, but he
(10:15):
also gave multimillion dollar gifts to various universities, so education
was certainly front and center, which is something we just
kind of think about tim more broadly, if you will
on this Giving Tuesday.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah, Giving Tuesday is that decade old grassroots movement and
it encourages people to give to charities on the Tuesday
following Thanksgiving. Carol, maybe you've gotten some emails today from
charitable organizations or nonprofits that are trying to I won't
want to say take advantage, but you really lean into
This day is one that is one where people give
away a lot of money.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Well, and I think about as we all get ready
to spend money on gifts and so on and so forth,
to think about giving back to society more largely and
more broadly. Our next guest has a study on giving
trends of affluent households and has found that charitable giving
among this set is now above pre pandemic levels. Diane
Chips Billy is National Philanthropic Executive at Bank of America
Private Bank. She's with us on Zoom from Charlotte, Charlotte,
(11:09):
North Carolina. Diane, nice to have you here with Tim
and myself, you know, and thinking about the story and
thinking about Charlie Munger specifically, tell us a little bit
about the demographics among affluent households who gives the most.
Give us an idea of just kind of that background,
if you.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Will, absolutely, Carol, and thank you to Tim as well
for having me today. I'm thrilled to share more about
the Bank of America study of philanthropy, But before I
do that, I think providing a little bit of context
into why this research into affluent Americans wealthy Americans is
so important. If you look at donor participation stretching back
(11:51):
to before the Great Recession, you know, back in the
six seven era, we saw two thirds of Americans overall
general population making contributions to charitable organizations every year. Now
that general participation number is down less than fifty percent,
so really a substantial decline. That's why days like Giving
(12:14):
Tuesday are so so important.
Speaker 1 (12:16):
I want to make sure.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
I want to make sure Diana get that that number right.
You're saying. Post financial crisis, we saw charitable giving reach
a certain level, and now since then it's down a
little less than fifty percent.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
So it's the overall participation in giving is less than
fifty percent. It's around forty nine percent when you and
that's gone down from two thirds before.
Speaker 2 (12:41):
Yes, yeah, thanks you for the city.
Speaker 4 (12:43):
But when you look at giving from wealthy Americans, we
see that eighty five percent compared to the forty nine
percent in the general population, are supporting charitable organizations year
over year. So when you think about people like Charlie Hunger,
you know that it's those donors that are really carrying
(13:03):
the day. Nonprofits increasingly relying on a smaller and much
more affluent circle of supporters.
Speaker 1 (13:09):
Why is it down though?
Speaker 4 (13:12):
There are lots of reasons, you know. The first, of course,
is the pressure of income and wealth inequality. We're seeing
other reasons that matter as well. That first is trust.
When we look at trust and societal institutions among affluent Americans.
Our research tells us that twenty one percent of affluent
(13:34):
Americans have a great deal of trust in nonprofits to
be able to meet the challenges of the day. That
twenty one percent is the highest percentage if you look
at trust in Congress as for example, only four percent
of the affluent Americans that we studied said they had
a great deal of confidence in Congress to solve our issues.
(13:56):
But still that that represents a decline and trust overall.
You know, another reason that we think that giving is
declining that's really so interesting are changing patterns of religion.
You know, in our research, we know that religion continues
to get the biggest piece of the pie from aflin Americans.
When it comes to prioritizing their giving. The most giving
(14:17):
goes to religion, but it's coming from a smaller group
of donors. Participation in giving has declined substantially, But those
who are giving are giving with urgency and with enthusiasm,
with medium gifts that are six times higher than the
next category, which is basic needs. But so many people
(14:37):
learn patterns of benevolence and practices of benevolence in worshiping communities.
And so when we see declines in participation. There you
saw the Pew research right, which says that now thirty
percent of Americans classify themselves as nuns.
Speaker 2 (14:52):
N n e say use for a second, Claire by.
Speaker 4 (14:56):
Nuns and nees, and so that's atheists, agnostic and spiritual
but not religious. So you know, when you see those
increasing rates of people who do not identify with worship communities,
you know, do we lose those patterns and traditions of charity.
Speaker 1 (15:11):
How does something like war, geopolitics, climate change, how do
these things impact the giving world?
Speaker 4 (15:20):
So let's use global unrest and war as for example.
So we do see surges in giving when it is
being responsive to headlines, right, that urgency of what we're
seeing in Israel and Palestine with humanitarian need, et cetera.
That does inspire a surge in participation in giving and
(15:43):
in generous giving for the time period of the news cycle. So,
Tim and Carol, I'm here to tell you that the
work that you're doing is incredibly important to focus on
individuals where that generosity is needed most, because we do
see a bit of retraction when the media moves on
to different news stories. However, the uncertainty that also comes
(16:09):
from geopolitical conflict and unrest does also have an overall
chilling effect as it relates to giving, as do challenges
in the economy. So if you look at twenty twenty two,
which is the period in which we studied, that are
covers our research. You know, remember I don't have to
tell you market volatility and define interest rates inflation, even
(16:34):
among affluent Americans, those uncertainties in the economy, in geopolitics,
that does cause a bit of a retraction and a
little more caution in getting.
Speaker 1 (16:48):
Yeah, no, yeah, we often see that right when there's
little nervousness, and certainly in terms of the outlook and
we are at a time if we're trying to figure
out kind of what happens next. Dane, thanks so much,
really appreciate did Happy holidays. Diane Chips Bailey, National Philanthropic
Executive at Bank of America Private Bank, on Zoom from Charlotte,
North Carolina on this Giving Tuesday, which is.
Speaker 2 (17:11):
What I'm thinking about because I haven't given my to
my organizations yet sometimes yet before thee.
Speaker 1 (17:17):
I know, the end of the year, that's when everybody's like, exactly,
get it done. Stick around everybody. This is Bloomberg
Speaker 3 (17:24):
H
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Tim Stenovec
Carol Massar
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