Helping out: a national survey of volunteering and charitable giving
Helping out: a national survey of volunteering and charitable
giving is a new household survey of adults (aged 16 and over) in
England which asks for details of people's views and experiences of
participation in voluntary activity and charitable giving.
The survey explores how and why people engage in formal volunteering, and
what they think of their experiences; and how and why they give money to
charity. It also looks at what stops people from giving to charity or
volunteering. It builds on the Institute for Volunteering Research's National Survey of
Volunteering [external website], and provides
insights into changes over the last ten years.
The survey interviewed over 2,700 adults (aged 16 and over) in households
in England, who had previously been interviewed for the
Citizenship Survey, including 549 people from ethnic minority groups.
The results of the survey provide a wealth of data that will enable the
Office of the Third Sector, practitioners and funders to target and manage
programmes in support of volunteering and giving, and to help overcome the
barriers people face in taking part, especially those from disadvantaged
backgrounds.
Results from the survey
Headline findings from the survey include:
Volunteering
-
The most common reasons for getting involved in volunteering were in
order to improve things or help people (53% of volunteers), because the
cause was important to the volunteer (41%) or because the volunteer had
spare time (41%).
-
Regular volunteers were generally positive about their volunteering
experiences. Nearly all of them said that their efforts were appreciated
(95%) and 9 in 10 agreed that they were given the chance to engage in
activities that they liked (91%).
-
31% of regular volunteers said their volunteering could be better
organised, and 28% said there was too much bureaucracy.
-
Volunteers said that the main benefits of volunteering were getting
satisfaction from seeing the results of their work, enjoyment of being
involved and personal achievement. Many respondents also highlighted the
importance of meeting people and making new friends.
-
One-fifth (21%) of respondents said they had never volunteered. A further
19% were not currently volunteering but had done so in the past. However,
many of these people said they would like to spend more time
volunteering.
Charitable giving
-
Most people (81%) had given to charity in the last four weeks, most
commonly by putting money in a collecting tin, followed by buying raffle
tickets.
-
Nearly a half of the respondents said they had increased the amount they
had donated since 2000, and 37% had increased the frequency of their
donations. The most common reason given for this was a rise in the
respondent's level of disposable income.
-
Almost two-thirds of the respondents (64%) had heard of Gift Aid, and
approximately one-third (34%) had made use of it to give tax-efficiently
in the previous year.
-
The most common reason for donating to charity was that the work of the
charity was deemed important (52% of donors), followed by a belief that
it was the right thing to do (41%).
-
Over half of the respondents (58%) had both volunteered and donated to
charity in the previous 12 months.
Results in more detail
The dataset will be available from the UK Data Archive at the
University of Essex.
Feedback
We would welcome any feedback on the survey.
Please email the Third Sector Research
Team with your comments
