Charitable giving remains strong in Australia.

Five in six Australians give to charities or not-for-profit organisations (83%). More than three quarters of Australians (77%) give at least annually, while 17% do not give at all.

Australian generosity extends more than just financially. In the past 12 months, two thirds of Australian givers (66%) have donated goods, while one in three (32%) have volunteered.

Advocacy and raising awareness is on the rise with one in five Australian givers supporting charities/not-for-profits in this way (21% 2019 cf. 15% 2017).

Australian givers are increasingly ‘need responders’ with two in five most likely to give when they hear about a need or issue (40%).

Givers prefer to support charities with a local focus.

Australians still have a desire to look after their own backyard. Three in five Australian givers (61%) prefer to support charitable organisations with a local/national focus.

While raising awareness for causes and issues is growing among the younger generations, Australian givers are still more likely to want to support charities which directly assist in responding to an issue (38%) as opposed to those which raise awareness of an issue (29%).

Knowing and trusting an organisation is key to engagement.

For two thirds of Australian givers (66%), knowing and trusting the organisation is an extremely or very significant motivator for getting involved. There is also a need for personal values to align with the organisation receiving the donation (58%) and a desire to make the world a better place for the less fortunate (55%).

Australian givers are looking for transparency and impact from charitable organisations.

Almost seven in ten givers (69% extremely/very important) look for transparent reporting of administration costs from charities. Givers want to support an organisation with a proven track record (68%), that provides a detailed
breakdown of where donations are allocated (67%) and that reports on the impact they are having (62%).

Keeping administration costs below 20% will achieve positive perceptions among the public.

More than four in five (84%) Australian givers believe 20% or less of an organisation’s total revenue should be allocated to administration costs. Almost half of Australian givers (47%), however, believe that less than 10% of total revenue should be used by an organisation on administration. This perspective creates a
challenge for charity workers with just 7% believing their organisation could have its
greatest impact if their administration costs were below 10%.

The challenge of trust in today’s society.

Positively, three in five Australian givers (61%) believe the registered charities they support are extremely or very trustworthy. These trust levels, however, decrease when looking at not-for-profit organisations (37%), the charity sector as a whole (29%) and social enterprises (23%).