Gift wrapped – especially for you
Howard Lake | 21 September 2009 | Blogs
As it’s my birthday today allow me to share a present with you – or at least some thoughts on OSCR’s most recent research conducted with the Scottish public in February this year. The findings were only published this summer and appear to have attracted little attention or analysis. Good job you’ve got me to sort that one out then… Yep, I’m generous to a fault.
First, apparently, nearly 1 in 5 of the population appears to have no interest in charities or their work. Forgive me for thinking my pond is bigger and more important than that but that strikes me as an awful lot of people knowing little of the good charities do in Scotland, the UK and all over the world. Not convinced? Well, in real numbers that equates to nearly 1 million Scots. Uh huh. Thought that would make you gasp. And it prompts the question – what are we, and bodies like OSCR, going to do about it?
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Second, and perhaps more worryingly, three quarters of respondents have no contact with charities either as an employee, volunteer, beneficiary or trustee. Depending on your outlook, either this finding demonstrates huge potential to increase the involvement of communities in charities, or it suggests that there is a huge mountain to climb if more volunteers and trustees are to be attracted from a range of backgrounds. It might also suggest that we recruit from a very small pond of albeit highly talented people. But are we missing out on talent and skills as a result? If people have little contact with good causes, it stands to reason that they lack a shared or common purpose. No ownership. No knowledge. Ergo harder to raise money from the bulk of the population in a sustainable way?
This research also suggests that the generous Scots – until now consistently one of the most generous giving communities in the UK – are giving less than previously and less – whisper it – than their neighbours across the border. Only 89% of respondents claimed to have given to charity in the last year, compared to 94% of people in a similar Charity Commission survey in England and Wales in 2008, with only 77% giving money (85% in the Charity Commission survey).
Again, some might consider that public giving is actually holding up pretty well in the recession, given the timing of this research. It would be useful to compare it with other monitors. Indeed, it would be extremely useful to prod this headline finding more closely. Have people adjusted their giving patterns? Are some causes, and therefore organisations, faring better than others? And if so, which organisations are being hit hardest: often it is medium sized organisations that suffer the most, especially if they hit recession on the back of a period of growth in terms of size and funding for their organisation.
This is what is most frustrating about these kind of snapshot surveys. There’s never time nor space to do much more than scratch the surface. Researchers are rarely funded to go back and do more indepth, searching work that provides answers to the many questions the initial findings raise. As charities are having to navigate through extremely choppy financial seas right now, would it be asking too much for bodies like OSCR to fund such research and throw them a much needed life belt?
Photo: Redstamp.com on Flickr.com
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.