The best way to understand philanthropy worldwide is, unsurprisingly, to ask a philanthropist. For the third year in a row, the BNP Paribas Individual Philanthropy Index, based on a survey of 400 individual philanthropists worldwide, looked at the state of individual giving. Here are the 10 things you need to know:
1. Philanthropy is on the rise
The index, which measures the amount of giving, innovation in philanthropic approaches and promotion of causes and organisations, has shown an increase over the past year, as well as an overall upward trend over three years. The US scores the highest, 55.7 out of a maximum score of 100. Europe and Asia have made the most progress, with Europe and the US now practically neck and neck.
2. Health is the most popular philanthropic cause worldwide
65% of survey respondents pointed to health causes, followed by the environment (52%), education (44%) and social change, diversity and inclusion (42%).
3. Choosing a cause is the biggest challenge
Having to make a choice from a large number of causes is the decision cited by the largest percentage of philanthropists as being most complex and challenging (35%), followed by choosing the right organisation to donate to (30%).
4. Relatives help philanthropists make decisions
Relatives are the top resource for helping make philanthropic choices worldwide (51%), but fewer than half (48%) of philanthropists find relatives extremely helpful. A majority of philanthropists (67%) also believe that advisers are necessary to effectively navigate the giving sector.
5. Social impact beats financial gain
Mission investing, the kind of investing that is focused primarily on doing good, followed by financial returns as a second priority, is seen as the most promising trend by most philanthropists worldwide (52%). While not strictly philanthropy, impact investing is exciting for many who care about philanthropy and social change. It offers the potential of unleashing a huge base of capital to fund sustainable market solutions.
6. Sharing is caring
Collaborative philanthropy and sharing of data, best practices, needs and skills, are also viewed as highly promising (51%). Many philanthropists see collaboration with governments as the ultimate scaling up of their activities. They are hoping to incubate innovative ideas and eventually secure state funding to sustain and expand their programmes.
7. Tackling root causes is difficult
Philanthropy aimed at systems change – which tries to eradicate the root causes of problems rather than dealing with symptoms – is difficult because the results tend to be fuzzy and more difficult to measure. That may explain why this approach may be underfunded. It is, however, viewed as the most promising approach by respondents from the Middle East (61%).
8. Facebook and crowd-funding commonly used
The most popular technology solutions used in philanthropy today are promotion via social media and crowd evaluations (42%), followed by crowdfunding (41%). Facebook is by far the most popular social media platform (83%), but China’s Qzone (17%) also makes it into the top five media platforms used worldwide to advance the cause.
9. Twitter is not as popular
However, fewer than half of philanthropists (46%) regularly use social media to promote their causes, and almost a third (27%) want to remain anonymous about their giving.
10. Most philanthropists want to build a sustainable future
The most common goal in most regions is to leave in place a business model that will continue helping people (51%). The other top choices are leaving behind either private/public partnerships (45%), or self-reliant community organisations that will carry on the causes (41%).
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