The FINANCIAL — NEW YORK – Charitable donations rose in 2013, the first growth seen since the 2008 recession. But of course, measurements like this typically track monetary giving – just one of the ways Americans, and people the world over, can contribute to causes they believe in. Broadening the scope to all types of giving, a recent Harris Poll finds that nine out of ten Americans (91%) have made some sort of contribution within the past two to three years, with money only the second most common type of giving (66%), after used clothing (73%).
Just over half of U.S. adults gave food (53%) within that timeframe, while four in ten gave time or labor (41%) and nearly two in ten gave blood (18%). Nearly half (45%) gave some other type of used item, 4% made some other sort of medical or genetic donation, and 7% gave something else entirely.
Older Americans are more likely to have given used clothing (64% Millennials, 70% Gen Xers, 79% Baby Boomers and 90% Matures), money (58%, 65%, 70% and 82%), food (50%, 49%, 58% and 61%), and other used items (32%, 42%, 53% and 65%). Younger Americans, meanwhile, are more likely to have given blood (20%, 23%, 14% and 11%) or made other medical or genetic donations (6%, 4%, 1% and 3%).
Republicans (73%) are more likely than either Democrats (64%) or Independents (65%) to have given money within the past two to three years.
Women are more likely than men to have given used clothing (82% vs. 64%), food (60% vs. 47%) or other used items (50% vs. 40%), according to Harris Interactive Inc.
Personal responsibility
One in four Americans (25%) feel that people have a personal responsibility to make the world a better place by being actively involved with various issues and causes; this percentage is on par with 2010 findings (24%) but down from 2007 (31%). An additional 17% feel people should generally take part in things such as voluntary service, donating to charities, or getting involved in community activities because it is the right thing to do, representing a drop from 2010 (21%). Roughly half (48%), meanwhile, feel people can get involved with different issues and causes if they want to, but shouldn’t necessarily feel obligated to do so; this stat is up marginally from 2010 (46%) and more notably when compared to the 40% of Americans who selected this response in 2007.
Placing priorities
When asked which types of causes should be the biggest priority for charities to focus their resources on, youth/families (16%) and education (15%) are the top selections, followed by human rights (12%), medical research (11%), and disaster relief (10%). Environmental (7%), global health (7%), animals (4%), and other causes (4%) round out the selections, with 13% not at all sure, according to Harris Interactive Inc.
Education selections have dropped since 2010, from 19% to 15%, while growth can be seen for selections of human rights (from 9% to 12%) and disaster relief (from 7% to 10%) related causes. Baby Boomers (16%) and Matures (13%) are more than twice as likely as Millennials and Gen Xers (6% each) to select disaster relief as the biggest priority, while Millennials (10%) are more than twice as likely as Matures (4%) to prioritize global health. Democrats (17%) are more likely than either Republicans (8%) or Independents (11%) to prioritize human rights, while both Democrats (10%) and Independents (9%) are three times as likely as Republicans (3%) to prioritize environmental causes.
Some disparities emerge when focusing instead on what sorts of causes Americans care most about personally, or where they donate their time and/or money to the most. While youth/families is also the top cause in this context (18%), education (11%) falls to fourth place, after animals and medical research (12% each), according to Harris Interactive Inc.
Looking across these two questions at specific causes, the 12% of Americans who focus their own attentions predominately on animals-related causes represents a threefold increase over the 4% saying charities should prioritize this sort of cause. Meanwhile, Americans are less likely to personally prioritize education (11%), human rights (7%) or global health (3%) causes than they are to say charities should focus on these (15%, 12% and 7%, respectively). Looking specifically at where different groups of Americans personally focus on giving their time and/or money:
Matures are less likely than any other generation to prioritize youth/family causes (19% Millennials, 18% Gen Xers, 19% Baby Boomers and 10% Matures), while being more likely than other generations to focus their giving on medical research causes (9%, 12%, 12% and 22%). Millennials, for their part, are more likely than their elder counterparts to prioritize education (15%, 9%, 8% and 8%).
Democrats (11%) are again more likely than either Republicans or Independents (4% each) to focus on human rights, while both Democrats and Independents (7% each) are twice as likely as Republicans (3%) to focus their giving on environmental causes. Independents are also twice as likely as Republicans to prioritize education related causes (14% vs. 7%).
Social responsibility showing some influence over consumer behavior
Roughly half of U.S. adults (51%) say that a company’s reputation for being socially responsible at least sometimes affects their decision-making about what to buy, with 17% feeling strongly about this and 34% indicating it sometimes affects their decisions. An additional 25% say it affects their purchase decision-making once in a while and 17% say it has no effect at all, according to Harris Interactive Inc.
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