Research on Charity Giving

Charity can be defined as an openness and generosity to others, especially in the support of those in need. Encyclopedia (1997)

The UK charities market is extremely crowded, with a large number of charities and relatively slow growth in new registrations. The financial income of the market is concentrated in just a few very large charities, with 0.4% of charities accounting for over half the sector’s income. Mintel (2008) Because of this choosing which charity to support is difficult.

The over 30’s focus group that I interview as part of my charity research appeared to give more money to charity as they have more disposable income than Students. The students said they would give more if they could but also preferred to get involved with activities to raise money than give straight donations. The over 30’s also appeared to be very influenced by their children. One person said “now my children are getting older they want to be more involved in school activities which means I end up donating to causes that the school has picked and not myself”.

Cancer Research UK currently has the highest voluntary income of all charities with two thirds more income than Oxfam. The next highest charities by voluntary income are; British Red Cross Society, Save the Children, Action Aid and UNICEF-UK. Mintel (2008). There are also the smaller charity organisations who are locally based or just starting out, these charities may be less well known and have a smaller support system. When asking our focus groups which charities they usually donate to a similar response was recorded for both, neither group said they would never give to a larger charity such as Cancer Research UK but were more inclined to give to smaller or local charities as they can witness the effects that donations make and see where their money goes. One student said “I would not give to big charity campaigns as my money would get eaten up in overheads and not actually help the charity itself”.

Mintel (2008) suggests that; one third of consumers who have a positive attitude towards charities are inactive when it comes to giving. Over a third of consumers are completely unengaged with the charities sector, whilst just under a third is sceptical about how much good their donations will do. There are three types of consumers when it comes to charitable giving, the unconcerned, the sceptics and the givers who represent a third of the population. Of the three target groups, the givers are the most positive about charities and are the most likely to wear charity wristbands/ribbons. These consumers are motivated by making other people’s lives better, and they are more likely than the population as a whole to trust charities and think they are impartial. However, even though they are very much in support of charities, three quarters of these consumers still do not like being stopped and asked to make a donation on the street. When the focus groups were asked about giving donations on the street the students flat out said no they would not give money or account details to anybody who stopped them in the street. However the Over 30’s group said they would not give their account details to anybody on the street but they do like the sentiment of giving spare change to a charity representative with a donation pot all agreed the spontaneous giving made them feel good about themselves.

Children’s charities were also popular among the focus groups for different reasons. The student focus group said this was because they have known people growing up that have been affected by illnesses therefore can relate to the charities with the charities they also said that children are important as they are the next generation and should have the best care. The over 30’s on the other hand feel that children’s charities are important as most have had their own children so would want the best care if anything ever happen to one of their own. 'Using real-life personal stories in communications is likely to strike a chord with consumers'. Mintel (2008). The results have shown a strong preference from both groups of donating to disaster charities especially the students.