How do New Zealanders give?: 2nd Quarterly generosity indicators report

The Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector, in association with the Generosity Hub, commissions Nielsen Media Research to collect (via the Panorama survey) quarterly data on giving and volunteering in New Zealand. We commission this data collection to promote understanding about generosity, but also to monitor, in a timely way, the levels of support that people provide to community organisations.

This is an update to the first Quarterly Generosity Indicators report published on 15 September 2010, so should be read together with that release.                               

Overall, giving and volunteering remained stable between the March 2010 and June 2010 quarters.

Table 1: Quarterly Generosity Indicators
Indicator	December quarter 2009	March quarter 2010	June quarter 2010
Percentage of people who volunteered	28.3%	30.3%	27.8%
Median hours volunteered per month (per volunteer)	8 hours	10 hours	10 hours
Percentage of people who donated money	41.3%	40.1%	40.4%
Median dollars donated per month (per donor)	$40	$35	$36
Percentage of people who donated goods	16.4%	15.7%	19.3%

Note 1: Percentages are of the population 10 years and older as estimated for each quarter.

Note 2: Respondents were asked to recall their behaviours in the previous 3 months.

Analysis of these indicators showed that:

• the percentage of people volunteering decreased slightly. This decrease was primarily driven by fewer males volunteering for sports clubs. Based on available data, fluctuations in sports volunteering appear to be the primary driver of change in the volunteering rate from quarter to quarter
• median [1] hours volunteered per volunteer remained stable [2]
• the percentage of people donating money remained stable at around 40 percent. This indicator has been stable for three recorded quarters
• median dollars donated per month remained stable [3]
• the percentage of people donating goods increased. This increase was driven by both more females and males donating.

[1] Half of people who volunteered did more volunteer hours than the median, and so half did less than the median.

[2] In comparison, average hours volunteered per volunteer increased slightly to 20.7 hours per month, compared to 18.9 hours per month in the March quarter 2010 and 19.0 hours per month in the December 2009 quarter. The changes between quarters are not statistically significant at the 95% confidence level.

[3] In comparison, average dollars donated per donor remained stable at $134.40 per month, compared to $134.10 per month in the March quarter 2010 and $137.60 per month in the December 2009 quarter. The changes between quarters are not statistically significant at the 95% confidence level.

With three quarters of data available, a time series is now developing and seasonal patterns appear to be emerging. The stability of the indicators points to the robustness of support for community organisations in New Zealand. The most variable activity appears to be volunteering, with ‘summer' volunteering injecting approximately 100,000 extra volunteers into the community economy in the March quarter 2010, primarily into sports clubs.

The percentage of people donating money is the most stable indicator, at around 40 percent for each of the three quarters measured so far. This indicates that the likelihood of people donating money is not seasonally affected. This conclusion is supported by the relatively stable median donations per month.

The increase in the percentage of people donating goods is notable. This increase was driven primarily by more people donating to the Hospice subsector and education-related subsectors. A clear seasonal pattern is not yet evident if one exists.

The summary nature of the Quarterly Generosity Indicators may hide fluctuations in support for different types of community organisations. Sectors such as social services, health/medical, religion, environment, and other types of community organisations will be analysed in future updates to assess variability at this level.

One significant benefit of using the Panorama survey is the ability to investigate the lifestyles, attitudes and consumer preferences of generous New Zealanders.

To mark the celebration of International Volunteer Day, data was analysed from the June quarter 2010 Panorama database, searching for insights about volunteers.

Compared to the average person, the estimated 1,035,000 people who volunteered in the June quarter 2010 were:

Lifestyle and attitudes

• 26 percent more likely to have a busy social life
• 20 percent more likely to go the gym at least twice a week
• 20 percent more likely to agree that they would be lost without their mobile phone
• 35 percent more likely to agree that their paid work is more than just a job.

Consumer preferences

• 44 percent more likely to have at least one cup of fresh coffee per day
• 47 percent more likely to have eaten packet sweets in the past week
• 26 percent more likely to have eaten a chocolate bar in the past week
• 23 percent more likely to buy New Zealand made products
• 20 percent more likely to check country of origin labelling on products.

These insights just scratch the surface of what is available through the How Do New Zealanders give? research series. Future research will delve deeper into the lifestyles, attitudes and consumer preferences of generous New Zealanders.  

Based on available data, the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector (OCVS) estimates that when combined, volunteer labour (if given a dollar value per hour) and donations of money by individuals, account for 37 percent of revenue to the non-profit sector (*).

Changes in giving and volunteering therefore have a significant impact on the capacity of community and voluntary sector organisations to deliver to the communities they serve.

For this reason, the OCVS has worked with Nielsen Media Research to redesign the questions on giving and volunteering in the ongoing Panorama survey.

This redesign includes:

• moving from an annual to a quarterly measure of donations and volunteering
• collecting information on monthly hours volunteered and monthly dollars donated
• collecting information specifically about donations of goods
• refined definitions of the types of organisations supported.

These changes mean we can better track shifts in support for community organisations.

Because of the redesign, the results are not directly comparable with Panorama data in previous How do New Zealanders give? reports released by the OCVS in 2008 and 2009. This is because respondents are now asked about their behaviour for the past three months, instead of the past twelve months. This redesign will provide more timely information about changes in giving and volunteering, and will be more accurate as respondents are asked to recall their actions over a shorter time period.

The How do New Zealanders give? series has arisen out of collaboration between the OCVS and the Generosity Hub, a cross-sectoral group from business, government and the non-profit sector. The Generosity Hub aims to create a better awareness of giving in New Zealand and grow the level of giving, in all its forms, amongst all people in our communities.

Analysis was completed by James King, (OCVS Policy Analyst) to assist the work of the Generosity Hub.

(*) Estimate derived from the Non-profit Institutions Satellite Account: 2004 (Statistics New Zealand, 2007) pp21,35; and The New Zealand Non-profit Sector in Comparative Perspective (Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector, 2008) p18.

The data in this report are sourced from Nielsen Media Research's Panorama survey (December 2009 - June 2010 databases) which randomly surveys 3,000 people aged 10 years and over per quarter.

Panorama asks people to identify the types of charities, non-profits and other community organisations they have personally supported, generally in the previous three months. Support can be any one of five things; direct donation/sponsorship, donation of money to an appeal, donations of goods, volunteering and other support (such as purchasing products) that support the charity/worthy cause.

The results are based on the respondents' self-classification and perceptions, and their recall of their actions. Note that, as the survey is conducted throughout each quarter, the time period covered by the phrase "in the previous 3 months" is different for each respondent. This means the December quarter results report on behaviour in any three month period from July to December 2009, and the March quarter results cover activity in any three month period between October 2009 and March 2010. Data is weighted to the population for analysis. Unless otherwise stated, comparisons in this report use 95 percent confidence intervals to assess differences between quarterly results, and so should be interpreted as indicative only.

The classification used in the survey to identify types of organisations supported is adapted from the internationally-recognised International Classification of Non-profit Organisations (ICNPO), which was developed by Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. ICNPO has been adapted for use in New Zealand by Statistics New Zealand in the creation of the Non-profit Institutions Satellite Account: 2004 (see www.stats.govt.nz/npi).

For this research, 27 sub-sectors are measured and are based on ICNPO sub-groups. These sub-groups are:

Culture and recreation

1. Arts and culture

2. Sports clubs

3. Marae

4. Other recreation/social clubs and community organisations (e.g. service and special interest clubs)

Education

5. Preschool including Kindergarten, Playcentre and Kōhanga Reo

6. Primary and Secondary Education

7. Tertiary Education and Research

Health and medical

8. Hospitals/rehabilitation

9. Hospice

10. Illness and disease prevention

11. Mental health services

12. Children's health

13. Other health services (e.g. ambulance, paramedics)

Social services and community development

14. Children's welfare

15. Family support services (e.g. shelters and family/life education)

16. Youth services and welfare

17. Emergency services (e.g. coastguard, fire service, mountain rescue teams)

18. Services for the elderly

19. Services for people with disabilities

International aid

20. International aid, advocacy and disaster relief

21. Child sponsorship

22. Fair trade practices

Environment

23. Animal welfare and rights

24. Environmental

Other

25. Religious activities

26. Business and Professional Associations

27. Political organisations (including parties, unions).

If you require more information on the survey, visit www.nielsenmedia.co.nz, keyword "Panorama". 

We encourage you to examine, consider, discuss and debate this information, and help build our collective understanding of generosity in New Zealand. E-mail: ocvs@msd.govt.nz

The Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector will undertake more detailed analysis once a full year (four quarters) of data are available.

We encourage you to examine, consider, discuss and debate this information.

» E-mail: ocvs@msd.govt.nz                                        

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