An in-depth report on Social giving among South Africans, conducted over three years and published in December 2005, ranked South Africa as the nation of givers. The report found that as many as 93% of the country's people support charities and other social causes, with 54% donating money, 31% giving food or goods, and 17% volunteering time to help the needy. The findings were based on a survey of 3,000 South Africans over the age of 18 in all parts of the country, including informal settlements and rural areas. The researchers found that South Africans contribute an average of R920-million a month to poverty alleviation and development, which represented 2.2% of the monthly income of the working age population.
The causes supported are dominated by those serving children or youth (22%), followed by HIV/Aids (21%) and the poor (20%). These are followed by people with disabilities (8%) and the elderly (5%).
However, the World Giving Index report, published in September 2010, profiles South Africans as rather less charitable. The World Giving Index is the largest international study ever carried out into charitable behaviour across the globe. Out of 153 countries surveyed, representing 95% of world’s population, South Africans took the spot number 76, far behind much poorer African countries. The study details that 15% of South Africans say they donate money; 19% donate their time; and 57% help a stranger.
One of the reasons for discrepancy could be the time that elapsed between the two studies, though it is more probably due to the use of different methodology. The South African researchers deliberately cast the net as wide as possible. Their figures include both respondents who made monthly financial contributions to a charity and those who, for example, gave a sandwich or a cold drink to a street child begging at a traffic light.
While the World Giving Index study was not only about giving money to charities, it was more limited. The people surveyed were asked which of the following three charitable acts they had undertaken during the previous month: (a) donated money to an organisation; (b) volunteered time to an organisation; and (c) helped a stranger or someone they didn’t know.
It is interesting to note that both the South African report of 2005 and the more recent international survey found that wealth does not necessarily mean giving: an individual is not more likely to give to charity if he lives in a wealthy country or province.
In search of a better fund rising formula and in effort to make donating easy, transparent and fun, several South African charities have turned to the internet.
South African online marketplace and auction site bidorbuy reports that the site helped raise over R425,000 for charities and non-profit organizations in 2009. The site hosted a charity auction on which when the last VW Citi ever made for the general public went under to the highest bidder for R300,100, which the VW South Africa donating the amount to Ubuntu Education Fund, an organisation that provides life-saving health and educational resources and services to more than 40,000 people in the townships of Port Elizabeth.
bidorbuy also hosts annual celebrities for charities auctions, where personalities generously donate their time to the highest bidder for the benefit of their favourite charity.
