A Charitable giving by individuals

Origins and consequences of charitable confidence are investigated with the Giving in the Netherlands Panel Survey 2002-2004 (n=1,246). Charitable confidence is higher among the higher educated, children of volunteers, younger age groups, those with more faith in people, those who are aware of standards of excellence for fundraising organizations, and among persons with altruistic and joy-of-giving motives for philanthropy. In a regression analysis, the relationship of confidence with philanthropy is found to be moderately strong. The relationship is strongest for donations to organizations that deal with social problems that are difficult to solve, like poverty, illness, and violation of human rights. Beliefs about program spending and irritation about fundraising campaigns confidence partly explain why confidence matters for philanthropy, especially for those with altruistic motives for giving. Why confidence is important for philanthropy Few characteristics are more typical of donors than their confidence in charitable organizations. The Independent Sector (2002) reports that those who have high confidence in charities give about 50% more than those who have low confidence. Another study showed that among donors, loss of confidence is often reported as a reason to stop giving to particular charities. More than 40% of Dutch donors report that they have stopped giving to charities at least once (Consumentenbond, 2005). However, little is known about the origins and consequences of charitable confidence (Sargeant & Lee, 2001). It remains unclear how strong the effects of confidence actually are relative to other factors, and where confidence comes from. Therefore, this paper tests hypotheses on the origins and consequences of charitable confidence. Data and methods The questions above are addressed using data from the first two waves of the Giving in the Netherlands Panel Survey (2002-2004; n=1246). The GINPS is a web-based computer assisted self interview. Respondents are drawn from a pool of approximately 70,000 individuals who regularly participate in poll surveys. The fieldwork took place in May 2002 and May 2004. There are fourteen dependent variables in the analyses below: charitable confidence, irritation about fundraising, perceived spending on programs, and donations fundraising organizations in ten different sectors. Charitable donations were measured in both waves with extensive survey modules (called ‘Method-Area’ modules by Rooney, Steinberg & Schervish, 2004). In the second wave, charitable confidence was measured on a 1-5 scale (ranging from ‘none at all’ to ‘very much’) with the question: “How much confidence do you have in charities?”. One in three respondents reported ‘quite some’ or ‘very much’ confidence, about one in two reported ‘some’ confidence and about one in five reported little confidence or none at all (see table 1). In a bivariate analysis, charitable confidence is strongly related to the amount donated. Disregarding the extreme groups for the moment because of their small size, the differences are still very large. Those who report little or no confidence give on average €130 per year, which is 50% less than those with some confidence (€257). Those with quite some or very much confidence (€393) give 50% more than those with some confidence. The