Northwest Harvest reports volunteerism up, cash donations down. NWH
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Charities may be facing a Scrooge-like holiday season this year, according to a new study.
The portion of Americans saying they plan to give a charitable gift as a holiday present dropped 11 percent this year compared to last year. Just 38 percent of survey respondents said they'd give a charitable gift, according to a recent Harris Interactive poll. Charitable gifts included helping the needy, sponsoring a child or buying cows or tents for village development.
And charities aren't the only ones likely to suffer. Holiday retail sales are likely to dip as well. Economic troubles may cause almost six out of ten adults (57 percent) to spend less money on holiday presents this year. In 2008, seven out of ten (71 percent) said they would spend less on holiday gifts.
"The declines we see in this survey mirror the climate overall," said Justin Greeves, senior vice president of Harris Interactive, which regularly polls Americans about their charitable giving.
The economy has put a damper on general giving. America's most prominent charity fundraisers expected to see their donations drop by an average of 9 percent in 2009, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy. In June 2009, Giving USA reported a 5.7% drop in giving overall in 2008, the largest drop in five decades. “I’m surprised it’s not a lot lower than that,” said Greeves.
A majority however -- 74 percent-- say they will increase their giving again once the economy improves. And children are a priority for the overwhelming majority of Americans. Fully 95 percent said that it's especially important to address the needs of children during the holidays. World Vision estimated that 270 million children worldwide don't have access to basic health care.
"This research shows that people are still very anxious about the economy but clearly concerned about children”, says Devin Hermanson, World Vision’s Gift Catalog Senior Director. “They want to help, but feel they should wait until the economy turns around."
A majority of Americans also seem to be tiring of the normal holiday consumerism. Three in four Americans (76%) say they'd rather get a meaningful gift that helped someone than something traditional like clothing or a new tech gadget.
"An overwhelming majority of Americans still want to help others in need and would rather receive a gift that would help another instead of receiving a traditional gift for themselves," Greeves said. "That finding reveals our charitable culture at work."
The study, commissioned by Federal Way, Wash.-based World Vision, surveyed 1,001 U.S. adults in a random telephone survey and has a confidence level of 95 percent.
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