Growth following 2016 election
Rage giving isn’t limited to guns or abortion. Nor is it new.
But there are many signs that the phenomenon grew ahead of, during and after the heated 2016 and 2020 presidential elections. Many people who were concerned about immigration, civil rights and sexual assault and harassment during those highly polarized periods sought out opportunities to give to nonprofits and political action committees as quick and easy ways to express their outrage.
The ease and growth of online giving, up 42% in the three years ending in 2021, makes it simpler for rage givers to express their outrage. There’s no longer a need to mail a check or make a phone call.
Rage giving is, to be sure, partisan in that anger and outrage can provoke political mobilization, action and higher voter turnout.
But nonprofits on both sides of the political and cultural divide have reaped windfalls from rage giving in recent years. Giving to pro-gun organizations like the National Rifle Association, for example, can surge when gun control measures are in the news –as is generally the case after mass shootings.
More likely to be women and Democrats
In 2017, we commissioned a survey that identified 520 people who said they had donated to a nonprofit of their choice after feeling unbridled anger during the 2016 presidential election. Based on that data, we estimated that about 58% of these rage givers were women and 80% were white.
About 44% said they were Democrats, roughly 35% said they were Republicans and the remaining 21% identified as independent voters. Because the shares of Americans who lean toward one major political party or the other is more evenly matched, we found that, at that moment in time, Democrats were more likely to donate this way than more conservative Americans.
When thinking about the candidates in the 2016 presidential election and the stances each candidate takes on social and environmental issues, one rage giver from North Carolina said in response to our survey, “I’m just sick about it,” she said. “We’ve got to do something.”
More research is needed to get a clearer picture of why certain people do this. But based on what we’ve learned so far, we believe that people who engage in rage giving see philanthropy as a type of civic engagement and that their gift, along with other donations, makes a difference.
