The donations dilemma
The Charity Commission have just published the latest report into Public Trust and Confidence in Charities. This is the most recent wave of trend research we’ve been conducting on their behalf approximately every two years since 2005.
These are tough times for charities. The NCVO UK 2012 Civil Society Almanac1 estimates that by 2015/16 the voluntary sector is likely to lose £1.2bn in government income each year. At the same time the latest Citizenship data2 shows a slight downward trend in charitable giving, which means not only are charities having to contend with government cuts but the fundraising environment is also facing huge challenges.
The public is very aware of the importance of charities in society today. The latest Public Trust research reveals that 96% of adults in England and Wales say charities play an essential, very important or fairly important role (which is consistent with 2010). However, the proportion saying charities play an essential role has significantly increased from 30% in 2010 to 37% in 2012.
The data also indicate an increasing use of charitable services. A third of people (34%) now say they have benefited from or used the services of a charity, or had close friends or family do so (this was 30% in 2010). Compared to two years ago there has also been an increase in the proportion of respondents (by at least three percentage points or more) saying they, or any of their close friends or family, have done each of the following: used the services of a charity; received advice from a charity; telephoned a charity’s information or helpline; received emotional support or counselling from a charity; been a patient in a local hospice; received personal care from charity workers; and received financial help from a charity.
Indeed, the Civil Society Almanac identifies that spending increased in real terms by £1.1bn in 2008-10 as charities expanded their services in order to meet increased demand and that charity free reserves were £42.2bn in 2009/10, which is £4.1bn lower than at the beginning of the decade in real terms. The Charity Commission’s latest registration bulletin3 shows that 59% of charities registered between 1 October 2011 and 31 March 2012 provide services, compared to 34% of all charities on the register.
Clearly we know how important charities are and we appear to be increasingly using their services, so why aren’t we stepping in to increase the much-needed financial support that we give to charities? Of course times are tight and 18% of the British public say the amount they give to charity has decreased in the current recession (although conversely 9% say it has increased)4 but we also know that there are a great many prompts to charitable giving and financial circumstances are by no means the be-all-end-all.
The Public Trust research continues to give us valuable insight into public attitudes towards charities, with fundraising techniques and isolated negative stories in the media having an impact on the sector as a whole (click here to see the full report). But there’s more to it than this. Despite the many barriers (and excuses!) to giving it is vital that we find a way to develop those social norms to charitable giving that the sector so desperately needs. This is why I’m so excited we’ve been commissioned by New Philanthropy Capital to conduct a robust quantitative segmentation exercise into what drives donors to give (the research will be published towards the end of 2012).
Essentially it doesn’t matter whose responsibility we think public services should be, the reality is if we’re increasingly relying on charities to provide public services, we’re going to have to think a lot more about the role we can personally play in giving them the support they need to do so.
Sources: 1http://data.ncvo-vol.org.uk/ 2http://www.communities.gov.uk/publications/corporate/statistics/citizenshipsurveyq1201011 3http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/Library/about_us/more_than_2.pdf 4 Source: Ipsos. 1,003 British adults interviewed via Capibus May 2012
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