Friday Facts: Aussies and Charities

A brilliant report came out last week from Millward Brown, a research company who specialise in research about advertising, marketing and brands. Australian Charity Perceptions Report 2012 gives not only some very solid information but also demonstrates that fund raising in the Australian market is different to other markets.

Too Many Charities
There are approximately 200 000 charities registered on the Australian tax system. Of those about 25 000 have DGR status which means they can collect tax deductible donations. Of those, Millward Brown found that Australians remember Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of Australians are loyal to a select few charities. People over 50 are liable to be much more loyal to a small number of charities. A very important finding is that only 13 percent of Australians do not think there are too many charities. 57 percent think there are too many and 30 percent neutral. In the state of NSW 66 percent think there are too many.

What do Aussies want to donate for?
The  most important types of charities for Australians were:

• Disaster relief 64%
• Health 61%
• Poverty prevention/relief 52%
• Human rights 37%
• Animal welfare 37%

Which Charities are the best known?
Who has the pubic consciousness? Unaided, the first charity mentioned by the sample was The Salvation Army (19 per cent). Fully half the people talked about the Sallies. Red Cross came next (41percent mentioned- 17 percent first charity mentioned). St Vincent de Paul came next but only had six percent of first mentions (28 percent of respondents talked about them).  In order the most commonly mentioned charities were:

Fred Hollows (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

1. Salvation Army                                                                                                                              
2. Red Cross
3. Saint Vincent de Paul                                                                                                                         
4. RSPCA                                                                                                                        
5. Cancer Council                                                                                                 
6. Heart Foundation                                                                                                             
7. Oxfam                                                                                                                        
8. Smith Family                                                                                                                 
9. Guide Dogs Australia                                                                                                               
10. Unicef                                                                                                                       
11. WWF                                                                                                                          
12. Fred Hollow Foundation                                                                                                           
13. World Vision                                                                                                                 
14. Greenpeace                              

Of those charities, The Salvation Army Red Cross and Cancer Council were the most trusted which suggests Red Cross (who I volunteer for) have shaken off the bad publicity from misleading communications after the Bali Bombings.

With the exception of Fred Hollows, Greenpeace and Oxfam Australia, the above charities are very old long standing institutions. I was interested Reach Foundation, Starlight, Alannah & Madeline Foundation (who sacked one of their patrons Grant Hackett in May), Cystic Fibrosis (65 Roses), White Ribbon who have some fairly high profile events didn't appear at all. 

Don't ask us to give

Another key learning is that only 15 percent of Australians are okay with being asked for donations. 60 percent are tired of being asked for donations - almost a quarter are sick of being asked. This has some important consequences for the next few months and years. For me, there seems to be a key Australian psych that occurs in day to day life. Many of us are happy to help people (family, friends, strangers) but Aussies hate whingers/complainers. Don't ask for help and don't keep on asking. Charities need to remember this. 

Charity Efficiencies

While only 56 per cent believed charities should be run like a business,  87 percent of people want to know more about how their money is being spent.

Ways of Support
While 61per cent of people were interested in donating, 31per cent were interested in volunteering. Fully half of people would buy charity merchandise and almost half would buy a product where money went to the charity as a donation. (Take note charities). I would be interested in the overlap eg how many people would both volunteer and donate.  How man would buy merchandise instead of volunteering.