Holiday Giving Looks Promising

The holidays are busy for everyone, but I think non-profits are somewhere at the top of that list. The holidays tend to be the time when financial donations increase, outreach programs are set on the calendar, volunteers are knocking at the door and direct mail campaigns are flooding donor mail boxes. It seems a great time to catch up on a depleting budget when many people are feeling the generosity of the season. Even with a sagging economy, it is projected that donations will be going strong from Thanksgiving to Christmas.

The American Red Cross conducted a survey that had some pleasantly surprising results. The Huffington Post reports the findings which state that, “seven in 10 Americans plan to give more, or about the same, this holiday season. That’s a 10 percentage point increase from last year.”

Many Americans are cutting back on gift giving and party plans, but their generosity has been impacted by the high unemployment rate. “Despite the difficult economy Americans want to give to help others in need,” said Red Cross President and CEO Gail J. McGovern. “With so many people out of work, they want to give something that means something.”

There are some interesting results that also came from this survey of 1,020 adults:

• 79% agreed that they would rather have a charitable gift given in their honor than receive a gift they wouldn’t use. (What does this mean for the “As Seen on TV” market?!)
• 7 out of 10 people say they plan to give about the same or more this holiday season as they did last year.
• 4 in 5 people said helping someone less fortunate is an important part of their holiday traditions
• 68% of people agreed that because of the economy, it’s important to give to charity
• While about 40% will spend less on entertaining, travel and decorations, only 30% will spend less on gifts and 26% will spend less on charitable donations.
• Here are the gender differences in giving: “Seventy percent of women said helping out the less fortunate gets them get through the holidays, while only 61 percent of men agreed. But, men hardly turn into the Grinch when it comes to opening up their wallets. One-third of men plan to donate more than $100, while one-fifth of women said they’ll offer up that much.”

The bad news: it looks like the holidays are going to be as busy as ever. The good news: it looks like the holidays are going to be as busy as ever!

Start up your own or join and support a fundraising campaign to benefit a charity that is close to you this holiday season and make giving fun on Fundly!