Research finds drop in N Ireland giving

Howard Lake | 5 September 2014 | News

• Tagged with:
• Individual giving
• NICVA
• Northern Ireland
• Research / statistics

The number of people giving to charity in Northern Ireland has declined significantly in the last year, according to new research by the Northern Ireland Council for Voluntary Action (NICVA).
NICVA’s Individual Giving Survey for 2014 found that 56% of respondents made a donation in the previous four weeks compared to 73% in the same period in 2013.
This research was conducted between February and March 2014 by Ipsos MORI. A representative sample of 1,010 adults in Northern Ireland aged 16 and over were interviewed face-to-face regarding their donations to charity over the previous four weeks.
The research found a decrease in the percentage of individuals who donated in all of the age brackets surveyed, the most notable of which is with regard to 16-24 years where there is a 28% drop in the population donating.
Other main findings from the research were:

• Women are more likely to donate than men; however the percentage of those that reportedly donated has decreased. In 2013 76% of women and 71% of men made a donation compared to 58% of women and 53% of men in 2014.
• Individuals reported that the most common causes they donated to include health (10%), religious/faith based organisations (9%), hospitals and hospices (9%), children and young people (9%), medical research (8%) and animals (6%).
• Individuals are more likely to make a donation for a personal reason such as being asked to donate by a family member
• Donating by cash continues to be the most common method of giving. In 2010 49% of individuals made a donation using this method however this has slightly decreased to 42% in this research.
• Only 2% of individuals have made a legacy pledge.

 
In a commentary on the research as to why the results in this report are not as positive as those in 2013, NICVA says when the 2014 survey was undertaken no large fundraising campaigns were running.  In 2013, however, several fundraising campaigns including ‘Comic Relief’s Red Nose Day’ and the ‘Trócaire Lenten Appeal’ were running when the survey took place.
 

 

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.