Charity begins at home

As I read these statistics I wanted to find out more about who these people were that gave generously of their time and money and discovered that:

• women are more likely to give than men (90 per cent and 84 per cent respectively);
• middle aged people are the age group more likely to give - 88 per cent of those aged 45 to 55 years give on average $500 a year; and
• those aged 65 years and over give the largest average donation ($517).

Gina Anderson of Philanthropy Australia, which represents the benefactors, makes a pertinent point in difficult economic times: “Ten years ago you could write a cheque and give that to the charity and feel good about it - but today we expect more, a good feeling is not enough.” She was obviously referring to accountability for moneys donated.

Although Australians were quick to donate to the Asian Tsunami, the earthquake in the Middle East and the drought in Africa, it would appear that they are more discerning today about how their money is being spent.

If donations to charity are measured as a proportion of gross domestic product, America gives more than twice as much as Australians - 1.6 per cent compared to 0.68 per cent.

On the first night of the conference I spoke to a representative of the United Nations, based in New York, and she explained that a high profile US billionaire businessman gave her organisation a $1 billion grant for biodiversity specific projects. I asked her how we could access some of that money in Australia and she commented that if we could make a connection with a United Nations sponsored program in Australia she would be happy to assist.

It now looks possible that my colleague and I will be working closely with her organisation on global warming issues in the Pacific Islands and the Torres Strait Islands. The latter group is now building homes on stilts as the ocean continues to rise and lap their low-set homes in the outer northern islands, as a direct result of global warming.

The central issue that captured my attention the most at this conference, attended by over 200 donor delegates, was the successful collaboration of large corporate sectors with Indigenous and poorer socio economic groups in their respective countries. In the Philippines, for instance, a large coffee production company assists in the planting and harvesting of coffee crops in remote Indigenous communities.

They successfully sell the coffee cultivated from the Indigenous groups at a premium price, and market the produce as being organically grown from this discrete group. The market pitch, aided by the exotic flavours, ensures the expensive crop is snapped up by coffee connoisseurs who don’t mind spending a couple of extra dollars on the product.

In Czechoslovakia a philanthropic group has entered into a good business relationship with a mobile phone company whereby they advertise that they will charge an extra Euro (dollar) on each SMS call as part of charitable fundraising. The money raised goes directly to assist poor farmers to get them through hard times and to teach them better farming practices. Detailed portfolios of all moneys expended are placed on their webpage and made available to the public.

Just as everyone at the conference started to feel good about their charitable acts performed around the world the WINGS organizers shrewdly introduced a dynamic keynote speaker, Anuradha Mittal, on the penultimate day to stimulate further debate among the attendees.

Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of The Oakland Institute, speaking on Partnership with the Grantmakers, said: