Authors

• Finnish Fundraising Association (VaLa)
• Kepa
• Finnish Olympic Committee

Keywords

charitable organizations, donations to charity, fund-raising, knowledge (awareness), money, motivation

Abstract

This study charted Finnish people's attitudes toward donating money to charity and factors that motivate Finns to donate. The study was commissioned by the Finnish Fundraising Association VaLa in cooperation with NGO platform Kepa and the Finnish Olympic Committee. Taloustutkimus collected the data.

First, the study surveyed the respondents' donating habits (e.g. if they donated regularly to one or more organisations, donated on occasion to charity campaigns or collections, or did not normally support charities). Next, the most important reasons for making the latest donation were queried (e.g. wanted to change the world for the better, a celebrity showed their support for the charity campaign, the organisation was familiar, the organisation was Finnish, the cause was important on a personal level). It was also asked which factors the respondents generally deemed important in their decision to donate (e.g. sufficient information is provided on how the donated money will be used, donating money is made effortless, the organisation's money collection permit is visible).

It was further enquired whether it was possible for citizens to receive sufficient information regarding how the donated money is used, and whether the respondents knew what sort of results were achieved with their latest donation. They were also asked through which channels they received information about fundraising organisations, i.e. how they use the donations and what sort of results they achieve.

The study also surveyed reasons for not donating money to charity (e.g. did not want to participate, no interesting causes for which to donate, did not trust the collecting organisation, own financial situation did not allow for donating). Finally, the respondents were asked about factors that would motivate them to donate in the future.

Background variables included gender, age, NUTS2 region, household composition and household gross annual income.