Oldest French donors support more causes than the youngest

French donors give generously to many nonprofit organisations but how much and to how many varies depending on their age and location, new research has shown.

The 2022 Generosity Barometer (Baromètre de la générosité – donors’ view), produced by  Novos for France générosités, uses data from 37 organisations on a total of four million donors who altogether gave nearly €800mn in 2021.

The report shows that 52% of donors support more than one cause. In fact, 35% of donors give to three or more. This trend also increases with age: 50% of those who give to multiple nonprofits are over 75.

According to the Barometer, the median age of donors is 62. More than 10% of those aged 70+ had given money in 2021, with a peak of more than 15% for those in their early 80s. Meanwhile, the figure was just 5% for those in their late 40s.

These findings are echoed by a Recherches & Solidarités study, which looked at taxpayers to find out what percentage of their income they donated. It found that for those aged under 30, average donations were 2.4% of their income, second only to those aged 70+, where it was 2.7%.

For both the 30-39 and 60-69 age groups, this fell to 2%, dropping further to 1.7% for donors aged 50-59, and 1.5% for those aged 40-49.

In terms of how much of the population gave in 2021, the Barometer shows donor rates ranging from 13.2% in Paris to a low of 4.2% in the Aisne ​​region. They were generally higher in urban areas, the Atlantic coast and eastern borders, and lower in rural or deindustrialised areas.

The report also highlights the ongoing shift towards digital fundraising. In 2017, 73% of donors were recruited offline, a figure that has now dropped to 55%.

Another finding from the Barometer is that larger donations are becoming more common. The total value of donations of less than €150 adds up to €200m in this year’s report, a figure unchanged since the 2005/6 report. Meanwhile, the total value of donations of more than €1,500 in 2021 was more than €600m – in the first edition of the report, it was slightly under €400m.

Nadège Rodrigues, head of the study department at France générosités commented:

“Seeing these behavioural evolutions of French donors, it’s clear that fundraising has to evolve in order to encourage tomorrow’s generosity. Fundraisers and the charity sector are already in action!” 

Last month, a poll for digital agency Hopening warned that 20% of French donors would be giving less money to charity this year, due to the inflation crisis. This figure dropped to 16% among under 35s and 18% of those aged 65+, but rose to nearly a quarter for those aged 35 to 64.

Picture by Public Domain Pictures on Pixabay