'Long-term giving crisis' conclusions challenged

'Long-term giving crisis' conclusions challenged

News (UK)

Young people are failing to give as much as older generations, which could lead to a “long-term crisis of giving” according to the Charities Aid Foundation (CAF), which published a report comparing levels of giving by different generations last month. But a number of experts have taken issue with their conclusions.

Mind the Gap: the growing generational divide in charitable giving found that the gap between giving by over 60s and under 30s has widened significantly during the past 30 years.  More than half of all donations to charities now come from the over 60s, compared with just over a third 30 years ago. People aged 60 plus are now more than twice as likely to give to charity as those aged under 30.

In 1980, 29% of  over 60s had given to charity, while the figure for those under 30 was 23% . Thirty years later, 32% of interviewees aged over 60 said they had given to charities in the past fortnight, compared with just 16% of those under 30.

John Low, chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation, said: “The generosity of Britain’s older generation continues to be remarkable – and many charities today depend heavily on their support. The worrying fact is that people from Generation X and Generation Y are simply not giving to the same extent.”

Karl Wilding, head of policy and research at the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) that produce UK Giving, the annual report on donations, with CAF, welcomed the research, by Bristol University’s Sarah Smith, but queried the terms used by CAF to describe the findings.

He told Philanthropy UK: “There are a number of different evidence bases about giving. The starting point across them all is to say that the UK is a generous nation. I'm unconvinced by the word 'crisis' however.  This is a very useful piece of research, especially the cohort analysis - which shows from the 1950s onwards there is a lower propensity to give. But it does show that younger people in recent generations, as they get older, are more likely to give."

Wilding pointed out that any decline in giving actually seems to have begun before the cohort of today’s young people. He said: “If we are seeing the passing of a 'great generation' of givers, it seems it might be an earlier one than we thought."

Academics also pointed to wider social changes, which create problems when trying to compare the behaviour of one cohort and another.

Dr. Beth Breeze, researcher at the University of Kent’s centre for the Study of Philanthropy, Humanitarianism and Social Justice, pointed to the great demographic changes between generations as a reason for the changes in giving levels in a recent Liberal Democrat conference fringe event organised by CAF.

Breeze said:  “Being under 30 now, in 2012, is nothing like being under 30 for previous generations like the baby boomers. Today’s 28 year old is, on average unlikely to be a parent, unlikely to be married, unlikely to own their own home. But very likely to have debts and no spare cash.”

In the face of these changes, Professor Cathy Pharoah of Cass Business School’s Centre for Charitable Giving and Philanthropy emphasised how difficult it is to draw conclusions about changes in attitudes.

“Before you can say levels of generosity, or attitudes, have changed from one cohort to another you need to make sure there isn't some other key social change, such as patterns of education, wealth or employment, that has changed the make-up of the cohorts in a significant way. If you can control for all other factors you might find you can't conclude one cohort is more generous than another. Of course, you might be able to, but we're not there yet."

Along with Wilding, Pharoah also emphasised the danger of ostracising young people, who are the donors of the future, and who support charities in many ways not captured by the report such as campaigning and ethical consumerism.

To increase giving amongst young people, CAF suggests several courses of action. These include educating young people about giving and volunteering as part of the National Curriculum (and the Institute for Philanthropy runs a school based scheme teaching students how to be philanthropists) and encouraging them to become charity trustees. CAF also want to see a national online Gift Aid registration scheme to “allow the internet generations to maximise their donations”and boost workplace giving to put philanthropy at the heart of business. The report also advocates living legacies, based on their success in the US, as a way to unlock resources for charities.

Breeze offered additional targets: focussing on participation in, rather than amount of, giving and improving awareness of charities, so that every schoolchild can name 10 national and 10 local organisations. She also said trust in charities, and how much of a donation actually reaches a cause, is an important barrier to giving. Lastly, she argues that we must celebrate philanthropy: “If we want people to give, we need to make them want to identify as givers, so that must be an attractive identity.”

Digital giving experts also offered their perspective on how to better engage with younger people. Polly Gowers, CEO and founder of Everyclick, the company behind Give as you Live, said: “There are untold hidden millions available to charities - all they need to is ask the younger generation to give in a way that fits with their lifestyle. Our findings in the Digital Giving Review this summer found that digital channels were not being maximised - only 30% of donations are received through online channels. That said, there is a younger generation out there supporting charities through sites like Facebook and Twitter. There is a need to help charities work on converting online supporter engagement into financial support.”

Pharoah added: "If there is a problem - what we urgently need to do is carry out more research, because young people's voices seem entirely absent from the debate. We need to find out where engagement with young people is successful."

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