One of the charity world’s more depressing commonplaces is that nobody really cares about giving. Ask most fundraisers why people give, and they’ll tell you that they do so for emotional reasons – that people shell out for charity because they feel a mysterious ‘connection’ – however fleeting – with the cause.

But Waitrose might just prove this argument wrong. Whenever you buy anything from this exulted supermarket, the cashier hands you a ‘charity token’. You then have a choice of three charities to give it to, in a special collection-box at the front of the store.

Imbued with a fundraiser’s scepticism, I would have expected most of the tokens to have gone towards the local pet sanctuary, or some other heart-tugging cause. But this is by no means what always happens.

According to the blogging fundraiser James Briggs, when faced with the decision of which cause to support, most people take their time choosing. They read the little posters advertising each cause. And then they give to the charity they think is most deserving. Intriguingly, James thinks that charities which look like they’re poorly off might even benefit from increased sympathy from givers.

I find this absolutely fascinating, for the following reasons.

1. It shows that charitites might benefit from the economic downturn. OK, so when people give in Waitrose, they’re not giving their own cash. But if public sympathy for struggling charities turns out to be a general phenomenon, then giving won’t suffer as much as some charity sages are predicting.
2. It shows that people do think about giving in a serious way. Sometimes. One of the criticisms I often face as editor of this website is that, surely, nobody ever reads it, because nobody really cares about charities that much. And, though I can wheel out our visitor stats to my heart’s content, this ploy from Waitrose provides some more concrete evidence.

 
 

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