02/04/14 REACHING OUT Donating and Volunteering in the Republic of Ireland The 1997/98 Survey Helen Ruddle & Ray Mulvihill Policy Research Centre National College of Ireland Sandford Road Ranelagh Dublin 6 © POLICY RESEARCH CENTRE 1999 This book is protected by copyright. No part of it may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without written permission from the authors ISBN Number 0-905957-14 8 Published by Policy Research Centre 1999 National College of Ireland Sandford Road, Ranelagh, Dublin 6, Ireland 2 Research Team Senior Research Officer Helen Ruddle BA, MA, PhD Statistical Consultant Raymond Mulvihill BA, BSocSc, Dip Psy, MPsych Sc, Dip Stat, Dip Comp Fieldwork Manager Barbara Crowley Dip Mont With the assistance of: Elizabeth Harrington BA, H.Dip(Finance) and Breege Smith Consultative Committee Members Mr Roger Acton Ms Deirdre Carroll Ms Dervla Brophy Mr John McCormack Ms Niamh O'Carroll Ms Kate O'Sullivan Mr Andrew O'Regan Ms Sandra Velthuis 3 Table of Contents Overview of the Study 5 CHAPTER 1: Background, Aims and Methodology of the Study 11 CHAPTER 2: Historical, Policy and Fiscal Context 19 CHAPTER 3: Extent, Nature and Patterns of Donating 30 CHAPTER 4: Extent, Nature and Patterns of Volunteering 53 CHAPTER 5: Attitudes Towards Donating and Volunteering 88 CHAPTER 6 Conclusions and Issues 104 REFERENCES 111 APPENDIX ONE 114 Interview Schedule APPENDIX TWO 129 Additional Tables 4 OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY INTRODUCTION This Report presents an in-depth picture of the extent and nature of donating and volunteering behaviour over a 12-month period from February 1997 to January 1998. The findings are based on data collected in face-to-face interviews with a national, random sample of 1,181 respondents. The Report is the third in a series; the first two carried out in 1992 and 1994. The series of studies is designed to provide accurate systematic data over time and is intended to be of value to managers and staff of voluntary organisations, policy makers and researchers interested in the voluntary sector. DONATING How Many People Donate? Figure One: How Many People Donate? Non-Donors 13% Donors 87% The great majority of respondents (87%) gave money and gave more than once (79%) in the month prior to interview. There were no significant changes in the proportion donating in 1997/98 compared with 1992 and 1994. Most donations (86%) may be described as prompted giving; occurring in response to an appeal. Very few respondents gave in a planned way (8%) through covenant, standing order or pay-roll deduction scheme. The low level of planned giving is no different from 1992 and 1994. How Much Do People Give? The amount of money that respondents gave in the month prior to interview varied enormously from nothing up to £100 or more. The average monthly donation was £7.85. It is 95 per cent probable that in the full population of adults in the country, somewhere between £270.073 million and £210.917 million was donated between February 1997 and January 1998. The average amount donated in 1998, either through planned or prompted means, is not significantly different from 1994. 5 How Are Donations Made? The most frequent channels of prompted giving remain as in the previous surveys: the church gate collection (43% of donors), the street collection / flag day (30% of donors) and raffle tickets / lines (29% of donors). Purely philanthropic giving is more common but buying raffle tickets / lines and lottery tickets where there is the possibility of gain to the donor are the third and fourth most frequent means of giving. The largest amounts of money were raised by raffle tickets / lines (14% of total monies raised in the month), the church gate collection (12% of total monies raised in the month) and sponsorship and lottery tickets (each accounting for 9% of the total monies raised in the month). This is the same pattern as observed in the previous surveys. Where Does the Money Go? The foremost beneficiaries of prompted donations are organisations in the social services field (29% of all monies donated) particularly those dealing with physical/sensory handicap and the poor. The second major beneficiary is the health field (23% of all monies donated); in particular organisations concerned with specific diseases. The other major beneficiaries are international activities (13% of all monies donated) and the sports and recreation field (10% of all monies donated). The money from planned giving shows a different pattern to that observed with prompted giving; being concentrated in two main fields. Almost three-quarters of all planned donations go to international activities and to the health field, particularly hospitals. Men and women are very similar in terms of where their money is given; the only difference of any significance being that men give more money to sport (14% of all monies donated) compared with women (8% of all monies donated). Who Gives Money? Men and women are equally likely to donate and they give similar amounts of money. People living in rural and town areas give significantly more money than those in urban areas. Younger (18-24 years) and older people (70-90 years) give significantly less money than other age groups. Giving is directly related to gross household income and is also related significantly to gross personal income. Giving is also related to the donors' perception of their relative income size with those who consider their income relatively high giving significantly more than those who consider their income to be relatively low. Giving is related to level of educational attainment. People with primary education only give significantly less than people with higher levels of education. 6 Giving is related to employment status. Those working outside the home (full-time or part-time) and those working inside the home (full-time) give significantly more than people who are unemployed, retired or sick/disabled or who are in full-time education. Giving is related to social class with those at the upper levels giving significantly more than those at the lower levels. People who attach importance to religion give significantly more than those for whom religion is unimportant. Attitudes are a significant influence on giving. People who agree that ‘as a citizen I feel a moral obligation to give’, give almost twice as much as those who do not feel such an obligation. People who say they are ‘tired of being asked to give money for all sorts of causes’ give significantly less than others. Why Do People Give? People give when they perceive that it is for a good cause (60%). But around one- third of donors give simply because they are asked. The main consideration in deciding where to give their money is whether they know the organisation involved (42%). VOLUNTEERING How Many Volunteer? Figure Two: How Many Volunteer? Volunteers 33% Non- Volunteers 67% One-third of respondents had carried out some kind of voluntary activity in the month prior to interview. Twenty-one per cent had engaged in formal volunteering (in an organisational setting) and 21 per cent had been involved in informal volunteering (independently). The proportion volunteering in 1997/1998 is only slightly lower than that reported in 1994 (35%) but is significantly lower that in 1992 (39%). Whether volunteering is formal or informal the majority of volunteers stick to one activity. 7 On average the volunteers of the study had been doing voluntary work for four years. How Much Time is Given? The amount of time that respondents gave in the month prior to interview varied enormously from nothing to the equivalent of a week's work or more. The average time given in the month was 5.07 hours. More time was given to formal (3.11 hours on average) than to informal volunteering (1.95 hours on average). There is a 95 per cent probability that volunteering among the full population of adults in the country from February 1997 to January 1998 amounted to between 114,042 and 78,866 work years. The average time per month given to volunteering in 1997/98 (5.07 hours) is not significantly different from that given in 1994 (4.64 hours) or 1992 (5.03 hours). What Kinds of Activity Are Undertaken? In the case of formal volunteering, the most commonly undertaken activity is committee work (41% of volunteers). The next most frequent activity is fundraising (26% of volunteers) followed in third place by church-related activities (16% of volunteers). There are some differences between men and women in the kinds of formal voluntary work undertaken. For example, far more men (32%) than women (3%) engage in sports activities while far more women (21%) than men (8%) engage in church-related activities. The gender gap is evident in administrative/secretarial activities which is a very ‘female’ area (13% and 2% for women and men respectively) and in transport which in a ‘male’ area(13% and 6% for men and women respectively). In the case of informal volunteering, the predominant activity is visiting; 36 per cent of volunteers visited older people and 26 per cent visited the sick in the month prior to the interview. Women are more likely than men to visit the sick (29% and 18% respectively), to baby-sit (19% and 10% respectively) and to collect things for charity (18% and 4% respectively). In comparison, informal sports activities are the preserve of men (6% and 0% for men and women respectively). In the case of formal volunteering, the greatest amount of time was given to committee work (23% of total formal volunteering time).