# Charities Aid Foundation publishes trends about giving to disaster appeals

- Link: https://fundraising.co.uk/2011/10/17/charities-aid-foundation-publishes-trends-about-giving-disaster-appeals/
- Published: 2011-10-17T08:59:13+01:00
- Author: Howard Lake

As the DEC announces that its current [East Africa Appeal has raised £72 million](https://www.fundraising.co.uk/dec-east-africa-crisis-appeal-raises-72m-100-days),
the largest amount for a food crisis in its 45-year history, the Charities Aid Foundation(
CAF) has published findings from its monitoring of appeals.

CAF’s research team has been monitoring the public response to major disaster appeals
over the past six years. The second weekend after a major appeal has launched CAF
commissions research amongst over 1,000 members of the public aged 16+ about their
reaction.

Key trends from the research include:

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• the proportion of donors giving online has tripled over the past six years, from
7% of donors giving online for the tsunami in 2004/5, to 23% of donors giving in
this way to the current East Africa Appeal

• on average almost half of those giving to disasters give in cash (48%) meaning
that they might be missing out on Gift Aid which has the potential to increase the
value of donations by a quarter if given by a UK taxpayer

• women are significantly more likely to give to a disaster appeal than men. On 
average 55% of those who donated were women and 45% were men

those aged 65+ are more than twice as likely to give than 16-24 year olds (23% vs.
11%)

• for both the Haiti and East Africa Appeals, at least 80% of donors gave because
they felt international assistance was essential

• television coverage is essential in motivating people to give: 71% of people who
gave to the Asia-Pacific, Burma, Haiti and East Africa Appeals were motivated to
give because of images they saw on TV.

www.cafonline.org

 * **[New Chief Executive at DEC](https://fundraising.co.uk/2012/05/22/new-chief-executive-dec/)**(
   22 May 2012)
 * **[DEC marks 50 years of emergency appeals](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/07/02/dec-marks-50-years-of-emergency-appeals/)**(
   2 July 2013)
 * **[£33 million donated to DEC Philippines Typhoon appeal in first week](https://fundraising.co.uk/2013/11/16/33m-donated-dec-philippines-typhoon-appeal-first-week/)**(
   16 November 2013)