Almost half of men in the UK do not support a good cause or get involved in social action in a typical month.
British men are failing to close the gender generosity gap as they continue to lag behind women in volunteering, donating and sponsoring, new research by the Charities Aid Foundation shows.
Three in five women (60 per cent) got involved in some form of charitable behaviour in a typical month in 2015, compared with 52 per cent of men.
The most popular way for people in the UK to support a charity was donating money – done by two in five of us (39 per cent) in a typical month – followed by donating goods (20 per cent) and sponsoring someone (9 per cent).
CAF’s annual report on charitable behaviour, UK Giving, also reveals that the youngest generation are the least involved in supporting good causes with less than half of young adults doing so in a typical month (43 per cent).
People of pensionable age were nearly twice as likely to have given money to charity, with 44 per cent of over 65s having done so in the past month, compared with 23 per cent of people aged 16 to 24.
This year’s report estimates that Britons donated a total of £9.6 billion to charity in 2015, suggesting that overall levels of giving may have fallen in the past year.
The in-depth study also found that:
- Four in five people in the UK (79 per cent) got involved in at least one form of charitable action in 2015. London and the West Midlands are the only regions where less than three-quarters participated.
- Popular causes: Children’s charities were the most widely supported (30 per cent), followed by medical research (29 per cent) and animals (22 per cent).
- Typical donations: £14 is the median average charitable donation and cash is still the most common way for people to give, accounting for 55 per cent of donations. Those most likely to donate are women, middle or upper middle class and aged over 45. Less than half of young people aged 16 – 24 (48 per cent) donated to charity last year.
- Charity shops: Almost half of Britons have donated goods in the past year (46 per cent) with one in five (20 per cent) doing so in a typical month. Women are almost twice as likely to do this as men (26 per cent v 14 per cent in a typical month).
- Volunteering: One in seven people (13 per cent) volunteered for a charity in 2015. While young people are least likely to give money, they are the most likely to give their time for free, with 19 per cent of people aged 16 to 24 having done so. By comparison, one in ten (11 per cent) people aged 65 or over volunteered for a charity.
- Sponsoring: One in three of us (32 per cent) sponsored someone for charity in 2015. Women are more likely to be sponsors but give smaller amounts (£11.38) than men (£15.13) on average. People give most to sponsored events for hospitals and hospices, which attract an average sponsorship of £34.
Download the full report below:
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