The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, qut
An international perspective of giving
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- What do we know about the destination of gifts in Australia
- Overall trends in individual giving
- Giving methods and channels
An international perspective of givingWhile comparisons between levels of giving in Australia and the levels in other countries are often made it is important to note that there is a wide variety of different cultural practices and regulations that make such international comparisons problematic. For example, differences in the way regulations and tax law treat religious organisations in Australia compared with the arrangements in the US are likely to significantly influence the comparability of the available data about religious giving (McGregor-Lowndes, Flack, et al. 2014a; McGregor-Lowndes and Crittall 2015). Much of our understanding about levels of giving in Australia is conditioned by the lens created by Australia’s British cultural, historical and legal context (Lambert and Lester 2004). While Australia has long been a multicultural society, the dominance of its European cultural heritage has been moderated in the last 50 years by the increasing proportion of Australians with an Asian heritage, where diaspora giving is important but about which little is known (Baker 2012; Baker and Mascitelli 2011; Singh, Cabraal and Robertson 2010). Note that further literature review on this topic is included within chapter five of this review. What do we know about the destination of gifts in Australia?The Giving Australia 2005 project found that more people support organisations providing community services than organisations in any other field, but the average size of each supporter’s donation is among the smallest and so these organisations—the traditional ‘charities’—receive only A$1 out of every A$8 donated. Similarly, donations for medical research are common; three out of every five adult Australians give to medical research, but the gifts are of relatively small amounts on average. By contrast, international aid and development organisations receive slightly more overall, even though they are supported by only one-quarter of the population. The proportion of those donating to religious institutions is high and the total proportion of donations to these higher still (ACOSS 2005). Table 2.2 highlights the findings on the proportion of overall donations by recipient sector in the Giving Australia 2005 report. Table 2.2 Donations by recipient sector (adapted from ACOSS 2005)
The 2005 Giving Australia figures show that 4.8% of givers donated to arts or cultural associations, giving an average of $220, making up 2.3% of total Australian donations. 36.6% of givers donated to Australian emergency relief services, an average of $52, making up 4.2% of total Australian donations. Community or welfare services received donations from 69.5% of givers, an average of $81, receiving 12.8% of the total donations pool. Education received an average of $156 and 18.6% of givers donated, for a total of 6.6% of the total national donations. 24.7% of givers donated to environmental or animal welfare groups, giving an average of $87, making up 4.8% of total Australian donations. 24.7% of givers also donated to international aid and development organisations, an average of $87, making up 4.8% of total Australian donations. Medical research received donations from 57.9% of givers, an average of $77, receiving 10.2% of the total donations pool. Health services received an average of $88 and 20.5% of givers donated, for a total of 4% of the total national donations. 6.1% of givers donated to interest groups (professional and business associations, unions, political parties and other advocacy groups), giving an average of $125, making up 1.6% of total Australian donations. 3.9% of givers donated to recreational or hobby groups, an average of $75, making up 0.7% of total Australian donations. Religious or spiritual organisations received donations from 30.2% of givers, an average of $529, receiving 36.1% of the total donations pool. Sporting clubs received an average of $86 and 15.2% of givers donated, for a total of 3% of the total national donations. Other donations not classified in any of the previous categories made up 0.4% of total donations, with 0.5% of givers donating to non-classified causes with an average donation of $355. Since the Giving Australia 2005 report, McGregor-Lowndes and Scaife (2008) have found that Australian health and medical research NPOs (e.g. the Royal Children’s Hospital Foundation, and the Leukaemia Foundation) attract one in seven of all individual donation dollars; the area is popular, ranking second to religious institutions. However, it is not even a close second, as it is a case of many givers but small dollars. While three in five donating Australians support health and medical research the average gift is comparatively low: just A$77 per annum (pa) compared with A$529 pa to religion, A$234 pa to international aid, and A$220 pa to arts and culture. By contrast, in the US, the average gift to health causes by the most modest households is US$173, ranging to US$92,289 in households with incomes over US$1 million.
The latest data available on tax-deductible donations has revealed that the total amount donated and claimed reached A$2.62 billion in 2013-14. This is an increase of A$322 million from the previous year and has seen giving return to pre-GFC levels (where the total amount donated was A$2.39 billion). The average tax-deductible donation in 2013-14 was A$575.54, with just over a third of taxpayers claiming a gift deduction. Nearly 60% of those with a taxable income over A$1 million claimed average tax-deductible donations of A$51,978.72, being 1.31% of their taxable income (McGregor-Lowndes and Crittall 2016). The Roy Morgan Single Source Data Survey (Roy Morgan Research 2014) commented on what appears to be a downturn in the participation rate in charitable giving in Australia. The 2014 report stated: ‘Uncertain economic times are notoriously challenging for charities, as people tighten their belts, reassess their budgets and cut back on expenses (including donations) where they can. And just as the proportion of Australians 14+ who believe our ‘economy appears to be improving’ has plummeted from 57% to 35% over the last five years, so too the proportion who donated to charity in an average 12 months has declined from 71% to 65% over the same period.’ (Roy Morgan Research 2014, 1) And further: ‘Despite the overall decline in Australians donating to charity, the proportion of heavy givers (those who donated $200 or more in an average 12 months) has increased slightly in the last five years. In the 12 months to March 2010, 30% of all people who donated to charity gave $200 or more; in the 12 months to March 2014, this figure rose to 34%.’ (Roy Morgan Research 2014, 1) The available ABS and ATO data for 2011–12 suggests that the gifts claimed as tax deductions by individual taxpayers represent about half the total gifts received by NPOs, suggesting that if a wider range of gifts were allowable as tax deductions (given that tax incentives reduce the cost of gifts to givers) (McGregor-Lowndes, Newton and Marsden 2006; Sokolowski 2013) the overall levels of giving would increase.
There are few published studies on the role of giving methods and channels for giving in Australia, the most notable being the NAB Charitable Giving Index (National Australia Bank 2014), a six-monthly report that analyses credit card, debit card, direct debit, BPAY and EFTPOS donations to charities for the previous 12 months, which was reported on earlier in the chapter. Peer-to-peer (P2P) fundraising (also known as ‘experiential fundraising’) is an increasingly popular channel used by givers and volunteer fundraisers to support charities with their gifts. While various kinds of relatively small scale ‘athons’ (e.g. spell-a-thons, walkathons) have been a popular form of community fundraising for many years the advent of social media such as Facebook and Twitter have facilitated the expansion of the use of such methods to much wider audiences (Miller 2009). Little research is available on the extent of giving through P2P fundraising in Australia; however, in the US the Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Thirty—the survey ranking 30 of the largest P2P fundraising programs in the US—showed that donations using P2P totalled US$1.62 billion in 2014. That figure represented a 2.47% drop from 2013, due mainly to reduced popularity of a small number of very large events. Castillo, Petrie and Wardell (2014) investigated the cost and benefits of the mechanism of P2P fundraising through online social networks and found that, while Americans did not generally choose to use Facebook to make a donation, those who were already logged-on to Facebook were significantly more likely to donate when a friend asked them to follow their example by making a donation.
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