British public sweet on charity

Hannah ThompsonYouGovLabs and UK Public Opinion Website Editor
April 21, 2010, 8:46 PM GMT+0

The majority of the British public are generous in their desire to give extra charity donations in the form of tax, or as it is more widely known, Gift Aid, which is currently an ‘opt-in’ system used by charities to help them reclaim the tax you may have paid on any given donation amount.

85% of the British public are aware of Gift Aid, and 61% of these have used it – rising to 77% among those who favour international development charities, a recent survey on issues in the charity sector, Gift Aid reforms, online fundraising and the use of shock tactic adverts in charity campaigns, has found.

It seems that charities are becoming more and more visible and important among the general public, as over six in ten (62%) agree the role of charities in the UK will get more important in the next few years. The public, perhaps unsurprisingly, is also willing to maximise the amount of money that charities receive from donations, with 65% saying they would support a Gift Aid reform which would make the system ‘opt-out’. That is, to assume that donors want charities to reclaim the tax on their gifts unless they deliberately opt-out. Just 16% would not support this.

And it seems that harsh ‘shock’ tactics wouldn’t put the majority off from giving. Nearly four in five respondents (79%) agree that adverts which try to ‘shock’ are justified to order to raise awareness for a charity or a charitable issue. Such adverts would appear to reap the fundraising benefits, as a substantial 40% say they took action as a result of seeing a shocking advert, the majority of which was positive, such as going on to make a donation (13%) or look for more information on the subject (nine percent).