Survey finds public still willing to volunteer
Howard Lake | 5 January 2009 | News
A poll by customer insight specialist G2 Data Dynamics has found that, with a recession looming, one third of UK consumers are more likely to give their time rather than money to charities.
G2 questioned 30,000 people for the survey, asking them: “During the recession would you be more likely to give time or money to
charity?”
G2 found that 57% of women who are happy to help charities said they prefer to give up their time. The most generous region for wanting to give time to charity was the South West of England, with 56% of respondents preferring to volunteer.
Perhaps surprisingly, the poll found that retired people preferred giving money to time, while people on low incomes, often some of the more generous supporters in terms of proportion of income donated, were more willing to spend time on worthy causes.
Scottish consumers were the most willing to donate money to charity, with more than 50% of respondents saying that was their preferred method of support. Only 19% of Scottish respondents said that they had no association with a charity. In contrast, 37% of West Midlands respondents said that they gave neither time nor money to charity.
Kevin Slatter, managing director of G2 Data Dynamics, said: “People are clearly considering cutting back on regular financial donations to charity as they tighten their belts – but there are other ways they can help.
“Charities would do well to take note of the rising tide of people willing to volunteer support with their free time, which can be just as precious as money for many organisations.”
www.g2dd.co.uk
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.