Donations down 9.6 per cent in 2010 1

Fundraising | Niki May Young | 20 Jul 2010

More than ten million people in the UK have reduced their charitable donations in the first six months of 2010 and the total amount donated is down by 9.6 per cent, according to research conducted for Investec Bank.

Some 10 per cent of the population claim their donations have fallen by at least half compared with last year, and during the first half of this year 26 per cent of people did not donate anything to charities, according to the survey of 12,000 people aged 18 and over.

The figures reveal that only 10 per cent of the population increased their donations in the first six months of 2010 with 48 per cent of the population giving less than £50.

“Our findings suggest that in this age of austerity, charities are suffering from falling donations as people have less money. On top of this, many of the cash accounts targeted at them are paying derisory rates of returns,” said Investec spokesman Jack Jones.

"Given that charities have around 15 per cent of their assets in cash, they need to make sure that they are receiving a consistently good rate of return," he added.

In January the bank released figures stating that donations in 2009 were down by 10 per cent on 2008 with the average amount donated to charities in 2009 standing at £110.20 per person.

Last year £5.32bn was donated to charities and if the downward trend continues this year, 2010 could see as little as £4.81bn donated.

An Institute of Fundraising spokesperson responded: "It is clear that charities' income streams are still under pressure. However, it could be interpreted as a positive sign that, in this research, donors are reducing, rather than cancelling charitable donations, and 10 per cent of those individuals are still in a position to increase their contribution to charity.

"Fundraising at the moment remains a great challenge, although the economic situation could also offer opportunities for fundraisers as recognition for their valuable role grows."

Directory: Institute of Fundraising | Investec Asset Management

Place a comment

Richard Morris
Managing Director
TheGivingMachine
26 Jul 2010

After reading this article, I did some analysis on TheGivingMachine's stats over the last 2 years. Since the free donations raised come from online purchases, I would have expected a similar decline due to the general financial climate but the data shows that there has been just under 1% drop over the period Jul'08-Jun'09 & Jul'09-June'10. Active Givers still give ~£3.71 a month (vs £3.75 the previous year) to their favourite causes.

Although not indicative of all potential donors referenced in the article above (TheGivingMachine currently has a membership of about 21,000 Givers who support over 3,000 UK charities and schools), it shows that giving resulting from a change of behavior rather than direct donation is pretty much the same.

This is very reassuring and shows that "giving" is still very high on people's agenda even if spare cash to donate directly is harder to find.

Regards

Richard
TheGivingMachine

[Reply]

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.