Insights into charity fundraising
Media Briefing
Gender variations in charity support
Embargoed: 00:01 Wednesday 16th August 2017

This briefing gives the context and background to the report, the spokespeople available to discuss the report, case studies of encouraging men to support causes, and an overview of the main findings in relation to gender differences.
Context and Background:
Britain is the most generous country in Europe when it comes to donating to charities. The British public donates around £10billon every year to the important causes they care about. These range from life-saving medical research to animal rescue, from supporting older people in need to improving parks and playgrounds. This level of generosity would not be possible without the work of fundraisers, with 80% of people reporting that they made a donation after being asked, rather than it being a spontaneous decision.

The Institute of Fundraising (IoF) commissioned YouGov to conduct a survey of over 2000 people earlier this year to examine who, how and why people choose to support Britain’s charities. One of the most eye-catching findings from this work is the reported differences between women and men. Women are far more likely to donate to charities, take new positive actions after donating, and support local causes. This briefing highlights the most significant differences in the report across gender. For example,women say they are more likely to;

-donate to charity
-take new positive social actions as a result of donating
-support local causes
-donate if they found a cause they believe in

The jury is still out on why these differences exist. However there are many successful examples of charities and fundraising campaigns engaging men in their issues, including Prostate Cancer UK’s work.

Spokespeople:
Daniel Fluskey, Head of Policy and Research at the Institute of Fundraising
Daniel is an expert in charity fundraising practice and standards. Joining the IoF in 2013, he leads policy and research for the Institute. He can address the questions on the report’s findings, methodology, gender differences in engaging with charitable causes and wider issues across the charity fundraising sector.
James Beeby, Associate Director of Fundraising at Prostate Cancer UK
James joined Prostate Cancer UK in 2012 as Deputy Director of Fundraising and has been a powerful force behind increasing the income raised by his team. He’s played a big part in recruiting hundreds of thousands of people for Men United, the charity’s movement for everyone who wants to make prostate cancer something no man will need to fear in future.

Why do women support charities, and what could be done to encourage men to do more?

There are several explanations offered for the difference between men and women when it comes to donating to and engaging with charities. These include fundraising activity being more aligned to the interests or priorities of women, or that women might tend to be more altruistic and empathetic than men and therefore more likely to donate. Women are also more likely to say that they believe charities have an important role to play in society than men, and are more likely to have received or had friends or family who have received support or help from a charity. Women also report higher ‘trust’ levels in charities than men do, which might contribute to them being more charitable. The majority of the workforce in the charity sector are women, including the majority of fundraisers, which may also provide part of the reason behind these findings.

These factors, and others, may all contribute to women donating and doing more to support charities. They also point to what can be done to encourage more men to be interested in supporting and donating to charitable causes. The jury is still out and more research is needed on this issue.

However, there are examples showing ways to encourage more men to support and donate to charity, such as the work of Prostate Cancer UK to engage men in their work and fundraising. At the Institute of Fundraising, we think there is more to be done to identify and work to encourage men to do even more to support and get involved with the causes they care about.

Case studies encouraging men to support good causesfrom Prostate Cancer UK

Prostate Cancer UK has a simple ambition – to stop men dying from prostate cancer. Through shifting the science over the next 10 years to focus on radical improvements in diagnosis, treatment, prevention, and support, we will stop prostate cancer being a killer. Prostate Cancer UK have shared details on two of their successful campaigns.
1) Partnership with the EFL (formerly The Football League)

Project: In 2011 we embarked on a partnership with what was then the Football League. This gave us access to 72 clubs and their fans, to engage on both an awareness and fundraising level. The bread and butter activity of the partnership being bucket collections at grounds and health information in programmes and pitch side.

Why football: This was a great fit for us, an opportunity to take an important health message to a captive audience of thousands of predominantly male football fans, and tap in to the industry from both a corporate and individual giving perspective. We also hoped it would work as an ‘in’ to new corporate partnerships, celebrity supporters and other opportunities – and it has done just that.

Successes and legacy: One of the key legacies will be the annual Football to Amsterdam fundraising cycle ride. Now heading in to its sixth year, the ride has now raised£1.3million overall, with over 1,000 riders taking part, of which 92% were men. The partnership also led to corporate partnerships with Millwall FC, Oldham Athletic, Scunthorpe United and The League Managers Association to name but a few. The likes of Michael Owen and Paul Scholes have joined our books as supporters and Sky Sports presenter Jeff Stelling has raised over £800,000 by leading two major walking events alongside over 600 supporters, 81% of whom were male. We’re excited to see where else it will take us.

2) Men United Arms

Project: In 2015 we launched a project to raise funds via engagement with pubs, under the banner of the ‘Men United Arms’. Our strategy was to target landlords, to encourage them to get behind the cause and take part in the programme by holding fundraising events such as pub quizzes, race nights, sweepstakes and more. After an initial pilot, last year we expanded the campaign by introducing a competition for pubs to be named Prostate Cancer UKs favourite local.

Why pubs: We wanted to focus on pubs because they are often the heart of a local community, the number one leisure destination for adults with 44% of men going on a weekly basis. They also have a strong history of charitable giving with 85% engaging in charity fundraising.

Successes: This is an ongoing project in its early stages so we are still yet to see the full results, however the impact to date has been extremely encouraging and sets us in good stead for years to come. We have raised more than £100,000 and over 400 pubs registered last year. We know that many of the pubs who took part did so because one of their customers had been affected by prostate cancer, and landlords have also told us that since taking part, more men have used the pub to tell them about their own diagnosis or concerns they have about their health. We expect to see the programme go from strength to strength, with hundreds more signing up this year and getting behind the project.

The report’s findings on gender
1) Support for charity in general:

The IoF/ YouGovsurvey looked at a number of ways in which the UK public could have supported charitable organisations in the past 12 months.
Across almost all actions, women are significantly more likely than men to have supported a charity.
Charitable actions taken in the past 12 months (multiple choice) – by gender

Women showed higher levels of engagement with and support for charities in every category the survey asked about, including donating, fundraising, sharing stories on social media and volunteering.

However, when they do give men say that they tend to give more, with an average of £29.04, compared to £22.84.

2) Support for type of charity: Local v national:

Overall, the data suggests that women are more likely than men to support charitable organisations and to be concerned with local and community charities.

Women are also statistically far more likely to support or express interest in supporting local charities. One in two women (51%) said they already support small or local charities, compared to only 36% of men. 10% of men said they would not be interested in supporting local charities compared to only 4% of women.

When asked to describe the type of charity they generally support, men (22%) were much more likely than women (15%) to say that they mainly donate to large, national organisations. Women (55%) were more likely than men (42%) to say that they donate to a range of different charities, from national and international organisations through to small, local charities.

3) Taking new positive actions after donating:

Overall, 63% of people have taken additional positive actions as a result of donating to charity (net percentage).
Women are significantly more likely than men to have taken many of these actions as a result of donating to charity.
As the chart below indicates, giving to charity appears to have more of an impact on women in terms of new actions taken, than men.


As a result of donating to charity at any time in the past, which of these, if any have you done? (Multiple choice) – By gender

3) Motivations for donating to charity:

Women (10%) are more likely than men (5%) to say that they made a donation because they had read something of seen a story in the news.
Women (24%) are also more likely than men (17%) to identify the charity has having helped someone they know as a motive for their donation.
Women are more likely to give more frequently to charity, with 44% of women saying they donate at least once per month, compared with 36% of men.