11% of consumers plan to cut charitable giving, says RAPP survey
Howard Lake | 10 May 2011 | News
Research for marketing agency RAPP has found that, while 54% of consumers say they do not anticipate any changes to their charitable giving, 11% say they will reduce their giving.
The survey of a representative sample of 2,048 consumers across Britain examined the impact of the Government’s spending cuts on consumer spending and behaviour across various sectors, including charities.
According to the survey by trends and forecasting specialists The Trajectory Partnership, 8% said they will cancel one or more direct debits to charity, 16% said they would not able to afford to support the same amount of charities, and 17% say they would not be able to give as much to the charities they currently support.
There was also an increased preference for charities working the UK rather than overseas, with 19% saying they would rather support UK-focused charities.
On the other hand, some consumers are well aware of the impact of funding cuts, with 8% saying they would try to support the charities hit most by the Government cuts.
Commenting on the findings, RAPP Director of Customer Experience, Gavin Hilton, said: “The research looked at how consumers would reduce their discretionary spending across multiple areas and it’s clear that the charity sector is as vulnerable to cuts as anywhere else”.
He said that the emphasis for charities “will have to be even more on graphically demonstrating why donations are needed and what impact the money is having. CRM strategies will need to deepen and as consumers generally become more insular there will be real reward in demonstrating local value.”
www.uk.rapp.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.