People have "more trust and confidence" in local charities

Thursday 11 April 2019

Islanders prefer to give to smaller, local charities over larger international organisations, a survey into charitable giving locally has found.

Island Global Research carried out a survey during December and January which spanned Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man, with 710, 648 and 488 respondents from each jurisdiction respectively.

The findings for Guernsey showed that 97% of residents had made charitable donations in 2018, either by giving money, goods and services, or time.

74% regularly support a specific charity, with 57% giving money on a regular basis and a third of respondents regularly giving up their time. 

One-off donations and charity shops were the most frequently selected ways of donating money.

61% of residents surveyed said they had given more than £100 to charity last year, and 10% said they had donated more than £1,000.

"The rate of giving was varied, but is estimated to be equivalent to £340 per adult resident," the researchers said. "This suggests charitable donations from individuals were in the region of £18 million in Guernsey, but the result is sensitive to assumptions."

They also found, from their sample of respondents, that islanders have "more trust and confidence" in local charities

The mean trust score was 7.5 out of 10 for local charities, but only 5.3 for UK/International charities.

Smaller charities were also "greatly preferred" over larger ones, though half of the respondents had no preference on the size of charity 

Transparency was also found to be important, with more than three quarters saying that not being clear how the money received was being spent would discourage them from giving to a charity that they support the cause of. Persistent fundraising and too little money going to the actual cause were also seen as deterrents by a high percentage of respondents.