Charitable Giving Up - NAB Index

Charitable giving in Australia is on the rise according to the Charitable Giving Index by NAB.

Despite a softening domestic economy, flat employment growth and persistent consumer cautiousness, charitable giving is growing, according to the inaugural Charitable Giving Index by major Australian bank NAB.

The Index found that charitable giving is very seasonal with two peak periods identified. June is the main period for charitable giving as donors take advantage of tax concessions as the financial year ends.

The Index also exhibits seasonal activity in November, which reflects the success of campaigns such as “Movember”, the Bonus Season and stronger motivation for giving ahead of the Christmas period.

The distribution of donations across charity categories was broadly unchanged over the year to July 2012. Around 32% of all donations were directed to Humanitarian Services, down slightly from 34% in the 12 months to July 2011.

The second biggest recipients were Community Service & Children/ Family charities with 15% of total donations (down from 16% one year earlier). In contrast, uncategorised or ‘other’ charities increased their market share to 14%, from 13% in January-July 2011. This was followed by followed by Medical Research & Services (13.9%), Cancer (8.3%) and Health & Disability (8%). Humanitarian Services (-2%) charities were the only category to record lower donations.

The Index shows that the average annual donation size per donor increased 0.7% to $292 in the year to July 2012.

Humanitarian services have the largest average donation size ($354), much higher than Medical Research & Services ($207) the second biggest recipient. Average giving was lowest for Cancer ($115) and Health & Disability ($119).

By postcode, the average charity spend per person in dollar terms was highest in Middle Park (3206) in Victoria ($334). This was also 21% higher than Vale Park (5081) SA ($276), the second highest.

NSW features most prominently in the top 10 suburbs for average giving nationally, with 6 of the top 10 postcodes located there.

As a proportion of mean taxable income, however, residents from Lakes Entrance (3909) Victoria were the highest donors, giving 0.34% of their income to charity. On average, the top 10 postcodes from ACT (0.21%) donated most income to charity, while Queensland (0.16%), NSW (0.14%) and WA (0.13%) donated the least.

NAB and data analytics firm Quantium reviewed donations made by credit card, BPAY and EFTPOS to develop the index and gain a picture on giving across the nation.

For further analysis download the full report.