400,000 fewer people give to charity

Almost 400,000 fewer people gave to charity in the last few months, including at Christmas, as recent scandals have hurt the sector.

Two Fundraising Ireland surveys show a significant drop of 11%, or nearly 400,000 people, in the numbers who said they gave to a charity in the past few months, compared to last year.

However, the surveys found that, despite the drop in donors, the value of donations is up slightly, with those who are donating giving higher amounts.

There was a 12% drop in the numbers giving under €10 and a notable growth in those claiming to give amounts between €16 and €50.

The surveys also found that there has been a fall-off in traditional collection methods like church or street collections (down 58% to 56%) or raffles (down 50% to 43%), and a rise in more committed giving methods — direct debit or once-off donations (up from 11% to 14%).

The Fundraising Ireland studies also pointed to “contradictory” views in relation to the payment of wages in the charities sector.

While the vast majority of people (92%) agreed that charities should be staffed with the best people, just 35% agreed that they should pay competitive wages to get the best employees.

Just over one-third (38%) felt that senior management should receive comparable pay to that in similar-sized companies in the private sector.

Overall, donors continued to donate most to local charities, with one in five stating they had given to a local charity over the past three months. There were also increases in donations to international emergency appeals, and overseas humanitarian and development agencies since last year.

Tim O’Dea, chairman of Fundraising Ireland, said the results of the survey were a “big concern”.

“It is a big concern that there has been such a fall-off in the numbers donating to charities. This survey shows that over one-in-10 adults who donated to a charity last Christmas decided not to give this year.

“This presents a serious challenge for all charities in the longer-term as the pressures on our services continue to increase,” he said.