Government aid spending does not impact on individual giving

Fundraising | Celina Ribeiro | 13 Dec 2009

Individual giving to overseas development causes is in no way linked to government spending in the area, according to the latest research.

Despite concerns that increasing government investment in overseas aid would discourage public giving to the area, research conducted by the Economic and Social Research Council found that the public pays little attention to government spending in the area when deciding where to put their charitable pound.

Individual giving to international development has outpaced the growth of government spending and household income over the past three decades, increasing by 7.4 per cent per annum in real terms.

The research also predicted that the recession will have little impact on giving to international development, finding that since 1978 a 10 per cent change in household income produces around a 10 per cent variation in giving to international development.

“This suggests that the current recession will not have the devastating impact on donations predicted in some quarters,” said researcher Professor John Micklewright.

The study, called ‘Giving to development’, also discovered a public deeply cynical of government motivations, and which attributed gains in the field of international development more to Sir Bob Geldof and ‘public will’ than politicians’ altruism.

“In view of this cynicism, it seems that we need to think of government policy and messages as a less forceful and direct influence on decisions such as charity giving than many may think,” said Professor Micklewright.

Directory: ESRC Research

Comments

[Cancel] | Reply to:

Name *

Email *

Organisation

Job Title

Comments *

Verification *

* Please read our Community Standards

Close »

Community Standards

The civilsociety.co.uk community and comments board is intended as a platform for informed and civilised debate.

We hope to encourage a broad range of views, however, there are standards that we expect commentators to uphold. We reserve the right to delete or amend any comments that do not adhere to these standards.

We welcome:

Robust but respectful debate
Strongly held opinions
Intelligent relevant discussion
The sharing of relevant experiences
New participants

We will not publish:

Rude, threatening, offensive, obscene or abusive language, or links to such material
Links to commercial organisations or spam postings. The comments board is not an advertising platform
The posting of contact details for yourself or others
Comments intended for malicious purpose or mindless abuse
Comments purporting to be from another person or organisation under false pretences
Gratuitous criticism, commentary or self-promotion
Any material which breaches copyright or privacy laws, or could be considered libellous
The use of the comments board for the pursuit or extension of personal disputes

Be aware:

Views expressed on the comments board are left at users’ discretion and are in no way views held or supported by Civil Society Media
Comments left by others may not be accurate, do not rely on them as fact
You may be misunderstood - sarcasm and humour can easily be taken out of context, try to be clear

Please:

Enjoy the opportunity to express your opinion and respect the right of others to express theirs
Confine your remarks to issues rather than personalities

Together we can keep our community a polite, respectful and intelligent platform for discussion.