Insights into Nordic region’s donors revealed in new survey

Insights into the Nordic region’s giving habits revealed in a new survey show that Finland has significantly fewer charity donors than Denmark, Norway and Sweden, although one expert says that reform of tax deduction laws could change the picture.

Vipps MobilePay commissioned the first Nordic Donor Survey of 4,000 people – 1,000 in each of the four Nordic nations. In total, 61% of Danes said they donate money regularly or occasionally, compared to 59% of Norwegians, 56% of Swedes and 42% of Finns.

In each country, women were more likely than men to donate, although the split was most pronounced in Norway (64% versus 54%) and more marginal in Sweden (57% versus 55%).

Asked which causes they had given money to in the last two months, ‘helping the disadvantaged in the home country’ was the top answer in Finland (38% of respondents who recently donated) and Denmark (27%), followed by ‘humanitarian aid and disasters’ with 21% and 26% respectively. Humanitarian aid and disasters was the number one answer in Norway (29%) and Sweden (28%).

Finns were more likely than others to have recently put money in a collection box, while Danes were the most likely to have given money via a mobile payment in the last two months.

In each of the four countries, more than a quarter of people said they had donated clothes or goods to a charity in the last two months ­– ranging from 26% in Finland to 31% in Sweden.

Looking ahead

Responding to questions about intended future giving, those in Sweden expressed growing interest in donating to animal welfare causes. Lower-income respondents from Sweden were also more likely to list a broader range of potential future causes.

Those in Finland (in particular younger Finns) also showed increased interest in animal welfare, while environmental and nature protection causes were significantly less interesting to those in Norway.

In Denmark, art and culture organisations were notably low on donors’ future giving lists, which the survey authors suggested might be the result of recent changes to the way foundations in Denmark support cultural activity.

Pia Tornikoski, general secretary of Finnish EFA member VaLa, comments:

“The fact that Finland may have less of a giving culture than its Nordic neighbours is in part because public funding has historically been more important to nonprofits, alongside the fact that only companies, and not individual Finns, can receive tax deductions when donating. With public funding streams drying up, the Government proposals to reform tax deduction rules become particularly important in harnessing the generosity which we know exists in the country.”

More on Finland’s tax deduction rules here.

Picture by Merja Partanen on Pixabay