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Statistics we like

AS ALL SMARTER FOLK KNOW, 34.7 per cent of statistics are made up, and in the charity world the figure's probably higher. Nonetheless we think these stats are about right, and some will surprise you...


The basics

  • According to CAF, a research outfit, we Brits give the same to charity now as we did 13 years ago. We're not getting any more generous
  • There are 180,000 charities in England and Wales, 20,000 in Scotland and 5000 in Northern Ireland
  • Women give more than men
  • The richer you get, the smaller cut of your earnings you give away
  • A tiny handful of huge charities brings in most of the money
  • In Britain, we give 0.73 per cent of our total wealth to charity - which compares rather well with the French, who give only 0.14 per cent. But British generosity pales into nothingness when compared with the USA - whose citizens give 1.67 per cent of their earnings to charity. (CAF)
  • Over half of all charities have no paid members of staff
  • More at the Charities Aid Foundation, Guidestar, charityfacts.org and the Charity Commission.

 

How they spend it

Don't pay much attention to charities' overheads when deciding which one to support. After all, no organization runs on thin air, and the few that try are often disorganised and ineffective. Added to that, there is no accepted definition of “administration costs” in charity accounts, so any figure you see is probably calculated in a completely different way to the next charity.

But it's interesting to compare how much charities spend on fundraising. We've calculated the figures below as a proportion of total expenditure.
 
SectorFundraising costs [%]
Animals17.0
Arts, culture & heritage15.2
Cancer22.5
Children & young people17.2
Disability17.0
Education & learning13.2
Elderly16.0
Environment17.2
Health19.3
Human rights & peace11.9
International13.1
Religious10.8
Society & work14.4
Source: Intelligent Giving. Figures are drawn from our database of 1,390 English and Welsh charities, and are continually updated.

Charities need to fundraise. For each pound they invest they usually generate three or more pounds (a somewhat better return than if they put it in, say, the Abbey National). The surprising thing here is the amount that cancer charities spend. These organisations have an easier job attracting donations, because so many people are personally affected. Their hefty spend is the sign of marketing-savvy charities that want to grow - or maybe which need to compete with each other for donations...

At the other extreme, we're not so surprised to see religious charities spending so little. Many of them get money handed to them on a plate, literally, making their fundraising efforts deliriously efficient. See more thoughts about this on our blog.

A few positives

  • Twice as many people now have access to basic sanitation than did in 1975.
  • The number of adults in the world who cannot read or write fell from 53 per cent in 1970 to 27 per cent in 2001.
  • "Developing countries have covered as much distance in human development in the past 30 years as the industrial world managed over more than a century." (UN Human Development Report)
  • "Chronic undernourishment" has declined from 35 per cent in 1961 to 17 per cent. More unfashionably upbeat stats at the Cato Institute's The Improving State of the World.

Our own guesstimates

  • Around 90 per cent of charities are:
    • Dormant or..
    • Don't take funds from the public or...
    • Represent only a tiny area, interest or number of people
  • Only 5000 or so charities might interest members of the public. For you personally, depending on your breadth of interests, it's 20 or fewer.
  • There are too many dormant charities. There aren't enough active charities.

Oddities

  • 15% of volunteers say volunteering leads them to eat less chocolate. (From Community Service Volunteers)
  • America spends the same on pornography every year as it does on foreign aid ($10 billion). (From 50 Facts that should change the World)
  • Overall giving levels remained the same the year of Live Aid - donors didn't give more that year; they just gave less to other charities.
  • European cows get £1.50 a day. The average African gets £1.80 a day.(Ibid)
  • People who gave money to able-bodied beggars in 1350 were breaking the law.