Irish giving patterns revealed
Howard Lake | 10 July 2005 | News
Irish people are expected to give 450 million euro to charity this year, according to a new wide ranging study on charitable giving in Ireland. The study, Good Intentions: Consumer Preferences for Charities in Ireland, was undertaken by research body Amarach Consulting.
Michael McLoughlin, Amarach managing director, said this giving level was not particularly generous when compared with other wealthy nations, although he conceded that it was difficult to make direct comparsions given the different tax, cultural and other differences between countries.
The study found that nine out of ten people donated to one or more charities during the year with the average donation 15 euro a month. Just 12 per cent, however, make fixed monthly donations according to the survey. Older adults (aged 55-64) and high income earners were more likely to make these regular donations.
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Some 26 per cent of Irish people, mostly in the older age bracket, preferred to donate to health related charities, with 21 per cent, in the younger category, opting for children´s charities. The study draws the conclusion that health related charities would fare better in the future as our population aged, while children´s charities would not do so well.
Some 15 per cent of donors preferred Third World charities, with higher income groups more likely to support this cause. The research also found that Dubliners accounted for 40 per cent of all charitable donations, despite accounting for 29 per cent of the population.
Some charities were failing to make use of the tax incentives available with 25 million euro being lost because they were not claiming back tax from regular donors who were paying through the PAYE system.
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.