Lebanese American Philanthropy

Introduction

This fall, the Khayrallah Center for Lebanese Diaspora Studies and NC State’s Institute for Nonprofits undertook a joint preliminary study of Lebanese-American philanthropy. Our collaborative project is a first step toward understanding what motivates Lebanese-Americans to donate (or not) their time and resources to organizations and causes here and in Lebanon. We launched this research because despite its immense financial success we, paradoxically, know very little beyond anecdotal stories about philanthropy within the Lebanese-American community.

You can download the full report, but here are some highlights:

• 74% of Lebanese-Americans volunteer as opposed to 25% of the general American public;
• Women donate and volunteer 13% more than men;
• 81% of donations went to organizations in the US;
• Difficulty in sending money and lack of connection to Lebanon meant that only 8% of Lebanese-Americans sent money to Lebanon in the past 12 months;
• Of those who made donations, about half gave $1,000 or more in the past 12 months;
• Of those who volunteered, about half gave more than 50 hours in the past 12 months;
• Of those who sent money to family in Lebanon, about half the respondents gave more than $5,000 in the past 12 months;
• Men are more likely to have sent money to family in Lebanon than women;
• Women are more likely to volunteer often for religious organizations and social service organizations;
• People who make a majority of their donations in Lebanon most often do this face to face. Women prefer this method more than men;
• Simple payment methods were more important to women than men in making donations to Lebanon.