How donors choose charities: Findings of a study of donor perceptions of the nature and distribution of charitable benefit

This paper is concerned with the question of how donors select charitable

beneficiaries, and the extent to which assessments of need are a factor in

giving decisions. The study is based on interviews with 60 committed donors,

representing a spread of gender, age and income levels.

There is a widespread belief that charities exist primarily to help needy

people and that the desire to meet needs is a key criterion in the selection of

charitable beneficiaries. However, this study finds that people do not give to

the most urgent needs, but rather they support causes that mean something to

them. In particular, the study finds four non?needs?based criteria that commonly

influence donors’ decision?making:

Donors’ tastes, preferences and passions, acquired ?? as a result of an

individual’s social experiences. These motivate many giving decisions,

even among donors who perceive themselves to be motivated by

meeting needs.

?? Donors’ personal and professional backgrounds, which shape their

‘philanthropic autobiographies’ and influence their choice of beneficiaries.

?? Donors’ perceptions of charity competence, notably the efficiency with

which they are believed to use their money, often judged on the basis of

the quality and quantity of direct mail.

?? Donors’ desire to have a personal impact, such that their contribution

makes a difference and is not ‘drowned out’ by other donors and

government funding.

Given the voluntary nature of charitable activity, these are not surprising

conclusions. Giving and philanthropy have always been supply-led rather than

demand-driven: the freedom to distribute as much as one wants, to whom one

chooses, is what distinguishes giving from paying tax. Yet the methods used to

encourage donations tend to assume that philanthropy depends on objective

assessments of need rather than on donors’ enthusiasms. The tendency

to overestimate the extent to which people act as rational agents results in

fundraising literature that often focuses on the dimensions and urgency of the

problem for which funding is sought. The assumption underlying this approach is

that donations are distributed in relation to evidence of neediness, when in fact

much giving could be described as ‘taste-based’ rather than ‘needs-based’.