Happy donors more likely to give than wealthy donors
Howard Lake | 9 September 2010 | News
Happier people are more likely to give money to charity than those who are wealthy, says the World Giving Index, compiled by the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).
The Index used a Gallup survey on the charitable behaviour of people in 153 countries representing 95% of the world’s population. It asked if they had given money to charity in the last month and to rank how happy they are with life. For all countries CAF compared the strength of the relationship between giving with both a nation’s GDP and the happiness of its population. The link between happiness and giving appeared to be stronger than the link between wealth and giving.
The study also looked at volunteering time and helping a stranger. In the UK, 73% of people had given money, 29% had given time and 58% had helped a stranger, placing the country eighth out of the 153.
Australia and New Zealand topped the World Giving Index with Malta having the largest percentage of the population giving money. The people of Turkmenistan are the most generous with their time and Liberia was top for helping a stranger.
The World Giving Index is at
www.cafonline.org/worldgivingindex
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.