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Negative sector stories outweigh positive by eight to one

Fundraising | Tania Mason | 30 Sep 2009

Newspaper coverage of philanthropy and the recession between September last year and April this year contained eight pessimistic portrayals of a ‘vulnerable’ sector for every one article that depicted the sector as robust and resilient, a study shows.

The inherent danger in this is that such stories can affect confidence in giving and create self-fulfilling prophecies of a giving recession, the researchers suggest.

The study, conducted by voluntary sector researchers Beth Breeze (pictured) and Gareth Morgan, sought to examine whether the assumption that charitable giving will suffer greatly in a recession, was actually based on any evidence.

The systematic analysis of UK print media coverage, where the words ‘charitable giving’ or ‘philanthropy’ and ‘recession’; were used in a story, identified 97 articles over the six months.

Of these, 63 were neutral, portraying non-profits as neither vulnerable nor robust during recessionary times.  But of the 34 that expressed a view, 30 were negative or alarmist, and just four – three of which were in regional newspapers – portrayed charities as robust.

Few cases offered any evidence for the comments made and many seemed to simply be conjecture or personal opinion on the part of the journalist.

‘Double whammy’ of less donations and higher demand

The research also sought to examine whether there was any evidence for the twin assumptions that giving in a recession will fall, and that demand for charities’ services will rise.

They found that several major fundraising appeals that have taken place during the economic downturn have attracted record donations – Comic Relief, BBC Children in Need, and the London Marathon - all raised more than the previous year’s event did, attesting to the resilience of giving in a recession.

Also, organisations delivering services to the economically disadvantaged constitute just a fraction of the whole sector and so a great number of charities will experience no increase in demand.

“In light of this analysis, we suggest that no simplistic link can be made between an economic recession and the impact on charitable giving,” the researchers said. “It is dangerous to assume that most charities will face a ‘double whammy’ with increased demand at the same time as reduced income, or will have so little in reserve that they will have to cut services.”

They recommended that charities should avoid implying, however unintentionally, that donations will inevitably be among the first items to be cut from budgets. “Indeed one charity reportedly undertook a test comparing two different versions of a mailing and found that mentioning the recession actually reduced the average values of amounts given.

“If the sector implies that it expects its income will inevitably suffer – and thus considers itself easily expendable - why should others disagree?  Charities should emphasise the impact of their work and focus on making the case that charitable giving is a priority, not an optional extra.”

Breeze is from the Centre for Philanthropy, Humanitarianism and Social Justice at the University of Kent while Morgan is from the Centre for Voluntary Sector Research at Sheffield Hallam University.  The paper was presented at the NCVO/VSSN Researching the Voluntary Sector conference on 8 and 9 September.

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