The UK Giving 2009 report was released last week. Everyone was keen to know how charitable giving had suffered/coped in face of the worst recession in recent memory. Launching the UK Giving report last year just around the time that the recession had officially begun, we were preparing ourselves for questions on how charities would survive the ‘black hole’ in charitable giving that was about to come. Obviously, media commentators had assumed that the economic recession would suddenly lead people to pull the plug on their monthly direct debits to charities. Turns out that it’s not as simple as just that.
Giving and philanthropy is not about money. I gave blood for the first time last month and can’t remember the last time I felt more altruistic. People don’t simply give out of guilt or peer pressure to their causes. I feel absolutely repulsed about giving to someone who tries snaring me into a guilt trap assuming that I don’t care about poverty or illness. I give when I want to give and it’s always of my own choosing whatever my motivations.
This very personal decision of what one gives to would take more than a recession to influence let alone decide. I believe this is the case behind the UK Giving report’s findings, which shows that the total amount given has dropped, but not as much the total number of donors. This begs the question, why do people continue giving albeit smaller amounts as opposed to completely stopping? The answer as I have argued above, is that the personal nature of the choice we make while giving is what keeps us going even through tough times. We almost cut down on our amounts in order to be able to continue to give rather than be forced to stop altogether.
Read more on the Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy website: www.cgap.org.uk
Saunvedan
The UK Giving 2009 report was released last week. Everyone was keen to know how charitable giving had suffered/coped in face of the worst recession in recent memory. Launching the UK Giving report last year just around the time that the recession had officially begun, we were preparing ourselves for questions on how charities would survive the ‘black hole’ in charitable giving that was about to come. Obviously, media commentators had assumed that the economic recession would suddenly lead people to pull the plug on their monthly direct debits to charities. Turns out that it’s not as simple as just that.
Giving and philanthropy is not about money. I gave blood for the first time last month and can’t remember the last time I felt more altruistic. People don’t simply give out of guilt or peer pressure to their causes. I feel absolutely repulsed about giving to someone who tries snaring me into a guilt trap assuming that I don’t care about poverty or illness. I give when I want to give and it’s always of my own choosing whatever my motivations.
This very personal decision of what one gives to would take more than a recession to influence let alone decide. I believe this is the case behind the UK Giving report’s findings, which shows that the total amount given has dropped, but not as much the total number of donors. This begs the question, why do people continue giving albeit smaller amounts as opposed to completely stopping? The answer as I have argued above, is that the personal nature of the choice we make while giving is what keeps us going even through tough times. We almost cut down on our amounts in order to be able to continue to give rather than be forced to stop altogether.
Read more on the Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy website: www.cgap.org.uk