SMEs Prefer Cash Donations
22 February 2007 at 1:27 pm
Small to medium businesses in Australia prefer to donate cash to charities ahead of volunteering, according to a new study.
The Sensis Business Index found that overall some 86% of small and medium enterprises or SMEs had made a charitable donation in the past twelve months of money, products and services or their time volunteering.
Straight donations of money were the most common donation made by SMEs, with some 70% having made a direct financial contribution to a charity in the past year.
Products and services were donated by almost half of all SMEs (46%), with just over one-third (36%) donating their or their employees’ time as volunteers.
Businesses in the finance and insurance and accommodation, cafes and restaurants sectors were most likely to donate money (79%), with retail businesses most likely to donate goods or services (69%) or their time (45%).
Whilst the most common donation of money, products or services from an SME was between $101 and $500, there were almost as many SMEs donating between $1001 and $5000.
Whilst the majority of SMEs were expecting their donation levels to remain the same in the next year (72%), 8% more SMEs were expecting to increase their giving than those expecting to decrease it.
The Sensis Business Index is an ongoing series of surveys tracking confidence and behaviour of Australia’s small and medium enterprises (Sensis is a registered trade mark of Testra.)
The Sensis Business Index is based on a sample size of 1,800 SMEs from metropolitan and regional areas of Australia. It includes businesses within the accommodation, construction, communication, health, community services, cultural and recreational industries.
