Wales: a generous nation?

Today is ‘Giving Tuesday’ – a global day of support for charities. How generous are Wales’ people and what does this mean for wider society and public services?

Following the trend for giving perfectly ordinary days of the year a new name – Black Friday and Cyber Monday for example – today is deemed ‘Giving Tuesday’. This is when people are supposed to give to a good cause the last few coins they have left after splurging on consumer goods.

Charities in Wales and the UK have had a tough year.

They have had to deal with everything from allegations of fraud to claims of excessive salaries and stories about ‘aggressive fund-raising’ and misuse of data. These stories have been accompanied by a fall in the trust and reputation of charities amongst the public, trust that will be hard to win back – as this story shows.  Yet despite Wales having negative headlines of its very own (think AWEMA, Cyrenians and the Joshua Foundation), it seems that Wales’ public are happy to give generously.

According to research by the Charities Aid Foundation, people in Wales are the most generous in the UK.

They found that 80% of people living in Wales said they had donated money to charity in the previous year.  Northern Ireland is the second most charitable region with 75% of people donating money in the previous year, followed by 65% of people in Scotland. In England 62% of the population said they had given money to charity in the previous 12 months.

The report doesn’t say how much people gave – it might be that in Wales a lot of people give pennies, while in England a few people give millions.

While this might worry the fund-raisers, the underlying messages are extremely important.

First, it seems that despite the headlines people in Wales do still trust and support charities, not only in general but enough to give them their money. Now anyone working in a charity, me included, knows that getting people actually to part with their cash is the real crunch – words are easy but getting the pounds and pennies is not.

Second, the degree of support suggests that people might have much more to give than just money – their time, their expertise, their endorsement for example. Charities do need money, but they can also do a great deal with non-monetary support as well – and there is great potential for charities in Wales to develop new models of delivering their services that capitalise on this.

And third, there is a pointer to the potential for a much broader shift in the delivery of a wide range of services to the public.  This is not about Big Society, a word that hasn’t graced UK Ministers’ lips for some time, but about a genuinely collective and communitarian approach to meeting public needs, in which ‘sector’ doesn’t matter.

And last, if you are feeling the urge to give, why not support the Bevan Foundation?

We welcome one-off donations as well as regular gifts – as a thank you for just £3 a month you’ll get our brilliant magazine, exclusive invitations to events and access to valuable resources.  You’ll also enable us to have a strong and independent voice on social justice in Wales.

Victoria Winckler is director of the Bevan Foundation.