The Government’s long-awaited Giving White Paper is due to publish on Monday (May 23^rd) and the weekend’s papers will be full of news on the state of philanthropy in the UK.

So how is philanthropy? It is alive and quite well  - though many believe it could be much, much better.

While Philanthropy UK carries many reports, including some this week, that show by some measures giving has increased, the level of giving as a percentage of national income refuses to budge and has hovered around the 1% mark for a number of decades.

Philanthropists continue to make substantial gifts on a regular basis, for example, Dame Vivien Duffield’s £8.2m donation to cultural learning in March, The Hintze Family Charitable Foundation’s £2m donation to the National Gallery, and the sizeable donations made to Oxford University that took it to its £1bn fundraising target in record time

However, The Sunday Times Giving List, published earlier this month, that annually takes the temperature on giving among the wealthiest, offered a depressing statistic: wealth was up 8% but giving fell 33%. Behind that headline however were more promising statistics:  the number of £1m+ donors  rose from 118 to 129 the report showed and the top 30 philanthropists in the list gave away a bigger proportion of their wealth, donating 3.42 % compared to 3.22%in the previous year.  It should also be remembered much giving is done anonymously which makes it difficult to get a true picture of giving levels.

That said, many feel more of the wealthy could give and feel those who do give could give more. The commonly cited statistic that the wealthy on average give less as a percentage of their wealth (around 1%) than those in the lowest income bracket ( around 3%) supports this view.

But though more giving will help, philanthropic funds alone will not change the world. Governments and business have a key role to play.

So what hopes are there of government and its Giving White Paper?  

There has been a long and vociferous call for more tax incentives among philanthropists, funders and charities as our last magazine that focussed on cultural giving showed. Lifetime Legacies (or charitable remainder trusts) are particularly favoured as a way of releasing more funds to the charitable sector.

The pragmatic view is that in austerity Britain the Treasury will not respond to the call for a change in fiscal policy, though it did deliver genuine measures to stimulate giving in the last Budget, including reforms to Gift Aid, the retention and promotion of the Community Interest Tax Relief (CITR) scheme designed to encourage investment in disadvantaged areas, greater tax breaks for legacy givers, an increase in the amounts that can be spent on thanking donors and encouraging the gifts of works of art.

But there are a raft of other measures that could help. The 450 responses to the Giving Green Paper called for a number of measures, including:

• Rejection of calls for a 5% payout by foundations and trusts here.
• the simplification of tax reliefs to encourage wider usage of Gift Aid and payroll giving.
• an agency to which aspiring donors, new to the field, can turn for help in negotiating the complexity of choosing causes.
• A need for donor guidance, education or assistance in selecting different ways to make a philanthropic contribution,
• a call for the government to lead by example, perhaps with the launch of a US style ‘Giving Pledge’ led by philanthropists
• a pledge by ministers to give a percentage of their income
• establishing giving as a social norm at a young age
• investment in new ways for donors to measure how effective their donations are to help build confidence and encourage giving.”
• additional research into motivations for giving to underpin the recommendations made in the Green Paper.
• the elimination of  red tape
• the establishment of an  ‘Increasing Impact Fund’ and a 'Better Asking' Campaign to improve the quality of fundraising, promote the work of voluntary and community organisations and develop innovative forms of' asking' people to give their time and money to voluntary organisations

 We have heard that the paper will contain ‘good news’ for the sector and the grapevine suggests the paper will offer action on pay-roll giving, donor-networking and next generation philanthropy – and all will be revealed next week. Philanthropy UK will be reporting on the Giving White Paper next week and also gathering reaction from the sector.