The ‘Ask’ is key to Affluent Giving
Howard Lake | 18 March 2004 | News
Research published today by The Giving Campaign, gives new insight into how the affluent decide how much to give to charity, and gives some tips on how charities can target affluent donors more effectively.
The research, commissioned from NOPWorld Financial, identified a number of key factors that influence how much the affluent give:
1. The ‘ask’ from the charity is crucial. Respondents assumed that if they were asked for £3 a month, for example, that was how much the charity needed.
2. Donors seek reassurance that the donation will ‘make a difference’ and that the charity will spend it wisely and on the cause rather than administration.
3. The affluent do not feel as wealthy as perhaps others would perceive them. External pressures such as education costs and pensions contribute to the concept of ‘felt’ poverty that many respondents had.
4. Charitable giving comes out of the ‘end of the month ‘ pot of money, after nearly all other expenditure has been considered, the same pot that is used for spending on going out and treats.
The report goes on to suggest that charities need to be more targeted in their approach to the affluent, particularly in terms of the charitable ‘ask’. Many charities have high value donor initiatives, but the report identifies the need for more work to be done in building relationships with the mass affluent as well as the very wealthy. The research also identified tax-effective giving schemes such as the CAF account and Payroll Giving as good vehicles for increasing giving by the affluent.
Reacting to the report, Amanda Delew, Director of The Giving Campaign, said:
‘From a fundraiser’s perspective, the findings of the report are fascinating. The richest 20% of the population currently give just 0.7% of their household expenditure to charity, which compares very unfavourably with the less well-off. These findings could have real implications for how charities target this potentially lucrative demographic group.’
The report was published on the day of a debate, ‘A Wealth of Opportunity – persuading the better-off to give more’, where a panel of speakers, including Dame Stephanie Shirley and Lord Phillips of Sudbury, discussed charitable giving by the wealthy in the UK, and considered strategies for encouraging them to give more.
To get a free copy of the summary research, visit www.givingcampaign.org.uk, call 020 7930 3154 or email
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Notes to editors
• The Giving Campaign has been established to encourage a culture of giving and to increase the amount of money given to UK charities. The Campaign has Government and voluntary sector support for its aim to increase charitable giving in the UK.
• The research method employed a two-phase programme of qualitative research. Face-to-face in-depth interviews with donors and lapsed donors comprised the initial stage. The second phase consisted of mini-groups convened with respondents already interviewed and team talks with charity fundraising teams. Phase 1 was conducted between October-November 2003 and phase 2 in January 2004. The recruitment of donors and lapsed donors was undertaken by NOPWorld Financial and Total Research Services in four geographical locations. In this way recruiters worked with a questionnaire based on the criteria outlined below to find individuals or couples who met the specifications of the donors (or lapsed donors) we were looking to talk to. Interviews and mini-groups were conducted by members of the project team from NOPWorld Financial.The Giving Campaign recruited charity fundraising teams for phase 2 of the research.
• A total of 28 face-to-face depth interviews were conducted with the ‘mass affluent’ who were currently (or had until the last few years been) donating financially to charitable causes. This equated to a total of 48 respondents being involved in interviews as, where possible and appropriate, some interviews were conducted with couples rather than a single subject. For the purpose of this research ‘mass affluent’ was defined as those people paying higher rate tax and givers were recruited on this basis. Where couples were interviewed at least one partner was a higher rate taxpayer and the joint income was at least £60K. No upper limit on income was imposed and across the sample a range of incomes (joint where applicable) was featured including non-earned income.
| 7 – A Wealth of Opportunity.pdf | 260.2 KB |
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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.