Charitable giving behaviour in Australia

Charitable giving remains strong in Australia with four in five Australians giving to charities or not-for-profit organisations (82%). When it comes to the frequency of that giving, more than seven in ten Australians (72%) give at least annually and one in four (24%) give at least monthly. A further 18% of Australians do not give at all.

Giving is not just financial

In addition to giving financially, more than three in five Australians (64%) have donated goods to charities/not-for-profits in the past 12 months. A third of Australians have volunteered (33%) while more than one in five have been involved with fundraising for a specific charity (23%) or advocating and raising awareness (21%).

Consistent with previous years of our research into the not-for-profit sector, young givers are more likely to advocate and raise awareness than their older counterparts (33% Gen Z cf. 29% Gen Y, 18% Gen X, 12% Baby Boomers and 12% Builders).

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Australians giving as need responders continues to grow

Since 2016 the proportion of Australians who are most likely to give when they hear about a need or issue has risen by 16 percentage points (46% cf. 30% 2016).

Younger Australian givers are driving the rise in need responders, being more likely than their older counterparts to give when they hear about a need or an issue (59% Gen Z, 54% Gen Y cf. 42% Gen X, 36% Baby Boomers, 35% Builders). Older Australian givers are more likely to be regular givers than their younger counterparts.

Charitable giving remains strong in Australia

Australians are highly motivated to give to disaster response in Australia

In light of the 2019/2020 summer bushfires in Australia, more than half of Australian givers (54%) are highly motivated to give money to or volunteer for organisations associated with disaster response in Australia. This makes it the number one area Australians are motivated to give to and increases its rank from fourth in 2019.

Top 8 types of charitable causes

Animal welfare and wildlife support continues to rise in prominence, moving from the third to the second most likely cause Australians are motivated to support (47%). This is followed by children’s charities (44%) and medical and cancer research (43%), both of which have seen a decline in ranking since 2019.

The rise in environmental giving

Australians’ motivation to support organisations associated with the environment is increasing, moving from the 12th most likely cause to support in 2019 to the seventh most likely cause in 2020.

Younger givers are driving the rise in support for the environment, being more likely than their older counterparts to give to organisations with an environmental focus (41% Gen Z, 34% Gen Y cf. 26% Gen X, 21% Baby Boomers, 13% Builders).

Giving across the generations

Younger givers are also more likely to support organisations focused on homelessness (45% Gen Z, 38% Gen Y, 37% Gen X cf. 28% Baby Boomers, 16% Builders) and human rights (37% Gen Z, 27% Gen Y cf. 15% Gen X, 9% Baby Boomers, 8% Builders).

Australians prefer to support organisations that directly assist and respond to issues

The proportion of Australians preferring to support organisations that are directly assisting and engaging in responding to an issue has increased since 2016. Today almost half of Australian givers (47%) much/slightly prefer to support organisations who are directly assisting and responding to issues. This has risen from 32% in 2016 and 38% in 2019. The proportion of Australian givers who prefer to raise awareness, on the other hand, is decreasing (25% cf. 32% 2016).

While younger givers prefer to support organisations who are directly assisting and engaging in responding to issues, they are more likely than older generations to prefer to raise awareness. Almost two in five Gen Z (39%) and Gen Y (37%) much/slightly prefer to support organisations which are focussed on raising awareness of an issue compared to one in five Gen X (19%), one in ten Baby Boomers (11%) and 13% of Builders.

Growing sense of nationalism

More than two in three Australian givers (67%) only support or prefer to support Australian charities with a local/national focus as they believe it is important to look after their own back yard first. In fact, one in five givers (21%) only support charities with a local/national focus. Almost three in ten (28%) have no preference, while 5% only support or prefer to support charities overseas where there is the greatest human need over and above Australian charities.

 

 

Tags: Australian Communities |

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