The reasons people give to charity
Giving to charity is by and large seen as a good and selfless act, so why is it that while some people happily donate give to a charity, others turn a blind eye to even the most desperate need? Is giving simply to do with being financially comfortable? Are religious people more likely to give than atheists? Are the motivations for giving to charity guilt or is it about ego? As professional fundraisers, it’s our business to understand the psychology behind why people donate to charities. In this blog, we examine existing research and data and ask the ultimate fundraising question: why do people give to charity?
What the studies ultimately reveal is that the benefits of giving to charity are just as much about the giver as it is about the receiver.
When Ghandi famously said
‘Be the change you wish to see in the world’
it spread like wildfire.
The idea that doing good is essentially ‘being good’ reinforces to nearly all of us that we should all be using our time on earth to try to make things better.
Many of us subscribe to the concept of karma that if we’re good, we will receive goodness in return.
Why do people donate to charity?
The ultimate gesture of ‘good’ is to help others.
For those of us who’ve been helped, we understand the value to both the individual and the communities to which we belong. After all, no man is an island.
Charities and their work force are widely trusted as the people who’ll know what to do to help. So to give money to charity seems like an easy and obvious choice if we want to ‘be good’.
Of course giving doesn’t stop at money.
Plenty of people regularly give clothes to charity, volunteer or take part in things to get sponsorship and raising money for a good cause.
But when a person decides to give furniture to charity or unwanted clothes, there is a dual benefit that they want to ‘get rid’, as well as helping a charity out.
Giving money to charity is arguably more of a sacrifice.
After all, it’s not just about having a clear-out of stuff you no longer want: Money is always going to come in handy.
In 2020-21, the British public gave to charity an average of £27 a month to charity - quite a generous sum when you think about it, considering being in the middle of a pandemic.
So is it because we’re wealthy that we donate to charity?
It appears not.
According to reports from a 2021 tax record probe, Britain’s highest earners actually reduced their donations (even prior to the pandemic), despite a 10% increase in their own wealth.
So if being rich isn’t what makes people give money, what is?
One of the ways we can learn more about what motivates people to give to charity is by getting the information direct from the horse’s mouth.
The psychology behind donating to charity is a complex beast and often not related to one single thing. However, clear and repeated patterns of behaviour arise across every study.
Studies on why people donate to charity
It turns out, people rarely just give without a motivator of sorts.
Whether that motivator is manufactured by an external source or it’s something within their own psyche doesn’t really matter. The point is people don’t just mindlessly give for charity.
The key reasons to donate to charity fall into several basic categories. These are:
Moral duty (altruism) – where a person feels giving is the right thing to do
Ego – where a person gives because it feels good. Also includes the way they want to be perceived by others.
Social dynamics – when people donate because peers are doing so, or peers encourage them to follow suit. Stimulated by the desire to belong and to be accepted.
FOMO –Taking part because of a fear of missing out on the action /fun of an event or group
Relatability – when the donor has been through (or knows someone that has been through) a similar experience to the cause and can empathise / wants to help
Trust – when a person wholly trusts an organisation to know what to do to help a bad situation and will use their money in the best way
Impact – when a donor can clearly see how their money will make a difference
Goal setters – when a donor feels a goal is achievable because of their help
Martyrdom effect – when a donor feels the recipient has ‘earned’ the donation through an act of hardship (e.g running a marathon or growing radical facial hair)
As aforementioned, those who choose to help don’t always just fall into one category.
Motivation for charitable acts is often variable, with reasons arising and changing along the way.
Consider the following scenario;
A local area is run down and has attracted littering.
The altruistic type may feel motivated to organise a clear up, to stop wildlife from being harmed (because protecting wildlife is the ‘right thing to do’).
Through team effort, we see social dynamics as more of the community is influenced by piers to join in.
Onlookers may witness the positive action and with a burst of ‘FOMO’ decide they’ll contribute too.
Upon completion, everyone feels the glow of having done something good for others - invariably feeding egoism.
The impact of the action is felt, with direct benefits including having saved wildlife, created a nicer place to live and overall instilled a happier community.
Later, perhaps a few pictures are posted online of the team at work.
Someone see the picture, inspiring the martyrdom effect who goes on to make a donation to a wildlife charity, feeling they too should contribute, since others have made so much effort.
So you can see how the original intention and reason for why ‘people do charity’ has transformed and evolved into a connective experience with varied reasons for charitable giving.
The Charity Aid Foundation (CAF) surveyed over 700 donors to learn more about what makes people give money to charity.
The donors questioned supported numerous causes from cancer charities to more niche local projects like building restoration. Of those questioned:
96% of people feel a sense of duty to give back to society, playing their part in tackling inequality (altruism)
75% gave because they felt passionately about a specific cause they could relate to (relatability)
71% felt motivated to give thanks to their faith, claiming their religious beliefs required them to support those less fortunate (moral duty)
61% had experienced things that ultimately became the reason for wanting to support a cause. Being able to directly relate to something is a real motivator when deciding to donate (relatability)
Other reasons included knowing that charities simply can’t survive without financial backing (trust) and the general personal satisfaction gained from giving (egosim).
Asking for money
Another study on why people give was written by Dutch scholars Rene Bekkers and Pamala Wiepking (later published in Psychology Today).
Here they saw that in 1996, 85% of American people give to charity, did so because someone asked them to. After all, people give to people
So does that mean that everyone will give you money if you just ask?
Unfortunately no – if only!
Circumstance, personality type and complex response patterns all factor in decision making.
So although asking is absolutely a good start, it doesn’t guarantee success on its own.
Of course, provided a person is ‘that way’ inclined i.e. relates to any of the categories above, how they’re asked can definitely sway a decision towards a donation.
By comparison with the American survey, more recent UK YouGov Profiles data showed that 26% of British donors said they did so because they were asked to in person. The person asking could be a friend or family member, but it also included fundraisers.
Interestingly, 33% said they donate good cause without any prompting at all.
This certainly seems to show that charities have won back some public trust previously lost to scandals and controversies within the sector (even if some media outlets report differently).
In fact, the charity commission report conducted in 2019 (pre-pandemic) showed that public trust in the charitable sector had increased to 62%, which was the highest in many years.
Since trust is essential for someone to hand over their debit card to a complete stranger, this can only be a good thing.
Is charitable giving a cultural thing?
Looking at the contrast in results between the British and American survey results (albeit some time apart) indicates more than just a historical shift in attitudes towards donating.
Choosing to donate to charity is certainly influenced by ones culture.
In our article ‘Not beaten yet – how the charity sector is surviving Covid’, the statistics demonstrate a stark difference between other countries and the treatment and support of the sector.
While in America they outwardly celebrate philanthropy, often naming buildings after larger donors, here in the UK we are somewhat more private about giving. Culturally it’s seen as okay to praise others for raising funds and shout about why people give to charity, it’s considered crass to boast about ones charitable gifting.
So perhaps (at least for us Brits) this suggests that donating is an internal thing, done more for the duty or feel good factor?
A survey of some 3,000 donors by Network for Good seems to back up this theory.
Results from their study on why people do charity show that the act of generosity actually stimulates brain activity in the pleasure and reward regions.
This relates to what psychologists call ‘egoism’, where the donor enjoys that warm glow from giving.
Biologically, brain monitoring reveals a release of the dopamine hormone, in turn triggering the feel good factor. This would no doubt stimulate desire to rinse and repeat.
Giving to charity makes you feel good
More research published in peer reviewed academic journal ‘Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly’, amassed a collection of answers from over 800 American people who had previously given to charity.
They were asked to rank 54 different statements underlining general reasons on why they gave or volunteered.
The entire range of statements could be broadly fit into one of six categories.
These were
Values (e.g. I am concerned for those in need)
Social (I recognise the need for social interaction)
Understanding (learning about causes)
Protective (I use giving as a way to help me feel better)
Career (I can benefit from the exchange with peers) and
Enhancement (my self esteem improves)
For example statements such as
“I give because I am concerned about those less fortunate than myself”
with participants asked how important or accurate each reason was for them (e.g ‘not at all important’ up to ‘extremely important’)
The summary of the answers showed five most popular reasons about people felt the need to donate. From most to least important these reasons were:
Altruism
Trust
Social
Egoism
Avoid paying taxes
Unsurprisingly, the most common reason cited to not give to charity was financial constraints. In these instances, people simply felt unable to afford to support charitable causes.
So why donate to charity?
So why do people donate money?
All this plentiful research certainly shows that humans are a complex bunch indeed.
We’ve seen that wealth doesn’t play a part in the decision to give - unless a person simply doesn’t have enough money.
When asked what are the benefits of giving to charity, most would admit it makes them feel good, for whatever reason.
Certainly we can say that charitable giving is contagious, just seeing others give makes someone more likely to do the same.
And encouragement from those we know (or simply just being asked!) definitely helps coax a decision to donate too.
Sometimes people just give because it’s the right thing to do.
It’s important to remember that fundamentally, people do want to help each other. The age old mantra of ‘treating others as you wish to be treated’ translates into almost every religion and spiritual philosophy known to man.
It makes absolute sense then that we would want to express outwardly something that we hope will be returned to us.
Read about how fundraisers can use psychology to help them raise funds more successfully
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