Young people are givers not takers, say Giving Nation
Howard Lake | 25 June 2003 | News
Giving Nation have announced the results of an online viral campaign in which 11-16 year olds were asked what they would do if they were given £500 for free.
Ten per cent of the young people said they would give it all away to charity and keep
none for themselves.
Giving Nation, which aims to get more
young people involved with charity, asked 11-16 year olds to choose between spending all the money on themselves, giving it to charity or dividing it between the two.
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Remarkably, none of the 558 11-16 year olds surveyed voted to keep all the money for
themselves. The most popular choice was to split it equally between charity and themselves.
Thirteen year-old Catherine Lloyd from Shrewsbury was the winner who actually received the £500. She had chosen to split the £250 equally between two charities. She
said: “It’s a fantastic prize and I’m
going to share £250 between the World Wildlife Fund and Cancer Research,
which we are supporting at school. The rest I’m going to spend, spend, spend – with help from my brother and sister!”
The survey of 558 11-16 year olds revealed that:
- Not one person voted to keep all the money for themselves
- Nearly 10% would give the whole £500 to charity
- Northern Ireland has the most generous 11-16 year olds
- 11-16 year olds in Scotland are the least generous
- 14 year olds are the most generous of the age range
- 16 year olds are the least generous of the age range
- the majority of voters would divide the £500 equally
Andy Thornton, Youth Campaign Manager, Giving Nation said: “The next
generation is on the whole more
generous and than it is typically being given credit for. We’re impressed
to see that when it comes to free money that greed has not taken over and that they would happily give away as much as they would spend on themselves.”
The survey results have been released in G-Week (23 – 27 June), the first national charity week in secondary schools. More than 180 UK secondary schools are taking part and more than half of all UK secondary schools are participating in the year-round Giving Nation campaign.
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.