Fascinating new polls looks at global charity habits

While there have been regional and national studies in the past about the likelihood of the general population giving to charities, a recent study just released might be the first international polling of philanthropy that is so far-reaching. A Gallup survey polled citizens in more than 150 nations to gauge their charitable behaviour and tendencies. The results are interesting if not incredibly surprising, it is encouraging to see how highly Canada, the USA and some European nations rank. It does however show that many nations either do not have the economic means to support charities or the reliance on charitable giving sits at a much lower threshold than it perhaps does in other nations.

The report is published by the UK-based Charities Aid Foundation (CAF) an organization that integrates donors and charities to encourage giving, social investment and the effective distribution and use of funds. I highly encourage you to visit their website as it is full of useful information and resources to aid the overall synchronization of your nonprofit while also providing valuable information to potential donors. While CAF is based in the UK they have expanded to open international offices in the US, Australia, Eastern Europe, India, Russia, South Africa and Brazil in their goal to provide the most benefit from global giving campaigns.

As for the poll results the findings are worth the time to review and take into account three key components to create an overall “World Giving Index”. Those polled were asked whether they had 1/ given money to a charity 2/ donated time-volunteered for a charity 3/ had helped a stranger. The combination of the positive percentages created the overall ranking on the poll which I have attached to this post. As I’ve written before there is a growing tendency toward volunteerism which is certainly helping many nonprofits to reach the goals and objectives that they devise annually. This trend is more apparent in nations outside of Europe and North America where the key role of the donor is still in providing funding to assist charitable organizations.

There was a tie for first place between Australia and New Zealand, a tie for third place between Canada and Ireland and a tie for fifth place between Switzerland and the USA. Rounding out the top 10 were the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka and Austria. The results of the survey showed a diverse approach to charity on a global basis as one would expect, a handful of nations showed that more than 70% of its citizenry had given money to a nonprofit in the last year topped by Malta at 83%. Donating time rather than money was the prevalent trend in Europe and North America at a ratio of about 2 to 1, while in Asia the likelihood of time being given as opposed to a cash donation was more likely.

Some of the larger nations on earth exhibited low results on the poll of giving including India, Russia and China each of whom rank in the lowest 20% of all nations, however the reasons or this are very complex and reflect major societal differences. The very nature of philanthropy in a cultural, historical and economic sense are markedly different in the West than other nations which means comparing the statistics on a global basis holds limited value. The full report however is absolutely fascinating and more beneficially breaks down the results on a regional basis so that the comparisons are of far more interest.

The regional breakdown processes nations as follows: North America/Central America/Western and Southern Europe/sub-Saharan Africa/Southeastern Asia/Eastern Asia/Central Asia/South America and the Caribbean/Western Asia and the Middle East. By doing so the statistics become much more illustrative of regional variations to the global trend. The report also breaks down results based on the demographics of age and gender which provides more interesting statistics to assess.

The Gallup poll is the most comprehensive of its type ever completed studying the global nature of charity support and giving. In all data was collected in person or via the telephone in a total of 153 countries which in turn represent 95% of the world’s overall population. The vast majority of countries completed over 1000 questionnaires which adds extra depth to the overall polling.

I highly encourage you to take a look at the report which is presented in a very understandable and visual way via the CAF website

In addition I recommend taking some time to learn about the outstanding work that CAF are doing in many nations. Please visit their site via this link.