Giving to charity grew by just 2% over the year to February 2015, down from 10% at the same time last year. Growth slowed in most age groups (except 65+), in all regions and there was significant divergence in the rate of charitable giving growth across charity categories. The slowdown in giving mirrors some key findings from our Consumer Anxiety Reports which shows that Australians are responding to heightened stress by cutting back spending on “non essentials”, including charitable donations. Slower growth in charitable donations has also occurred against a backdrop of below trend economic growth and rising unemployment.

Despite these challenges, the average donation size for all charities increased by $2 over the past year to $336 per donor, with nearly all charity sectors experiencing an increase in average donation size. For this update, we have undertaken a review of charity categorisations to improve how charities are represented in the publication. This has resulted in some changes, with around 50% of the “Other” category reallocated to a new “Charitable Lotteries” category. Despite this change, Humanitarian Services charities continue to attract by far the biggest (albeit declining) share of all charity donations (35%).

Finally, we continue to see a very strong relationship between average dollar giving and average incomes with the affluent suburbs of Middle Park (3206), Bellevue Hill (2023) and Hunters Hill (2110) leading the country for generosity. Relative to incomes, however, the suburbs of Castlemaine (3450), Sturt (5047) and Fitzroy North (3068) lead the way for charity.

For further analysis download the full report.

NAB Charitable Giving index: Indepth report – 12 months to February 2015 (PDF, 1.90 MB)

For more, call your NAB Relationship Manager, email community@nab.com.au or contact:

Alan Oster
Group Chief Economist
National Australia Bank
+61 (0) 3 8634 2927
Alan.Oster@nab.com.au