France: rising living costs driving decline in smaller one-off donations

French charities are seeing a decline in the lower donation brackets, leaving them increasingly reliant on donations from wealthier families, a report from EFA member France générosités indicates.

The organisation’s Baromètre de la générosité 2023 is based on data from 56 associations and foundations. It does not include legacies, donations exceeding €250,000 and donations following emergency appeals.

It finds that total donations to those charities grew by 2.1% from 2022 to 2023 – although adds that this actually represents a real-terms decrease of 2.4%.

Despite the overall rise, the proportion of one-off donations of less than €150 decreased by 2.7% to 41.8% over the past year. Donations under €150 had represented 71.7% of donations in 2004, the report’s first year.

France générosités says in its announcement that the ongoing decline in lower donation brackets “can be explained by the context of increasing living costs”. It also says:

“From year to year, the constant decline in smaller donations indicates a progressive structural change in generosity in France, driven by wealthier households.

At the same time, the number of new donors recruited to France générosités’ members each year has dropped by 12.4% between 2012 and 2023, although there was an increase in 2020 and 2021, around the start of the Covid pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The report also shows that in 2023, the number of donations received as regular gifts, as opposed to one-off donations, is 45%. This figure has steadily grown from just 16% in 2004. France générosités says that this is a sign of donors’ “growing confidence and loyalty” in the charities they support.

The move towards fewer donors making larger donations has been taking place in other European countries. This includes the UK, as reported earlier this year by Fundraising Europe, and Sweden as reported earlier this month.

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