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I could give at least three times more to charity than I do

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 9 Jun 2011

The British public can all give a lot more to charity, so why aren’t charities asking for it, wonders Celina Ribeiro.

I used to think I was a generous, bleeding-heart sort. I was wrong. I’m a cheap, stingy sod. Yes, a sod.

Yesterday at the APPG for the Voluntary Sector, University of Kent researcher Beth Breeze – who usually talks both sense and truth – suggested that the UK public could give away two or three times as much as they presently do without even noticing it.

"What a throwaway comment!" thought I. How absurd. How truly pie in the sky. Three times as much – that’s 300 per cent! Go back to the bookshelf, you lovely boffin, I mentally chastised as I scribbled away notes on much more realistic commentary.

Then, Oh. Yes. I could personally give away three times what I currently give to charity without really noticing it. Good point.

It’s not because I go home to wade through the sea of journalistic money that clutters my flat (I use the banking system), but rather because, like a lot of the population, I often imagine myself less affluent than I am. More in need of my own money than I am.

I have a direct debit set up to a charity. It’s been going for a while. I set it up at what I thought was a generous amount, but really, it could be higher. In the 18 months that I’ve been giving to this charity, it’s not once emailed or called to ask me to think about giving just a little bit more. In fact, they’ve not even emailed me to tell me about their work. I get what information I do from being a fan of theirs on Facebook.

We all get stuck on a particular number at which we feel we are being generous. For the ultra-rich, Breeze argued, that number is often £1m. A lot, to be sure, but really not that much when you consider their actual wealth and what money they require to continue living in the manner to which they have become accustomed. For some reason, however, they are often happy to put a nice six zeroes after their gift and leave it at that. Are they being asked for more? Is the standard for generosity being set too low?

Perhaps there is a case for promoting these philanthropy evangelists that the government and others are so keen on. But perhaps there is also a case for fundraisers to prepare their donors that they’re going to be asked for more.

As for me, I know I can be giving more to my charity, but I’m not going to. If they’ve not asked me for more, how do I know that they need it?

No. I’ll start a new direct debit to one of the two human rights charities I’ve signed up to receive news from (I’d been trying to figure out which of the two was going to be most powerful with my gift – I conclude e-newsletters are not the best way to do this).

Not a bad fundraising sell from an academic. 

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Who's Who: Beth Breeze