Irish charitable giving put at over €1 billion
Howard Lake | 4 October 2019 | News
A detailed analysis of fundraising performance in Ireland has revealed that charitable giving in 2017 was €1.1 billion.
The Irish Not-for-Profit Fundraising Performance Report was commissioned by 2into3 and supported by The Community Foundation for Ireland, Quilter Cheviot, BDO and Salesforce.org. The report showed that fundraising income increased 9%, rising for the eighth consecutive year.
The report is for 2017 and it used a representative sample of not-for-profit organisations to chart philanthropic income trends in Ireland. The report estimates Ireland’s charitable giving to be at €1.1 billion in 2017, with Irish people giving an average of €233 annually and philanthropy forming 0.30% of Ireland’s GDP.
Regular giving (30%) and direct marketing appeals (20%) dominate the fundraising mix, while income from trusts and foundations represented only 1% of fundraising, consistent with Ireland having the fewest charitable trusts and foundations in Europe. More traditional fundraising methods such as local/community fundraising and emblem appeals represent a far smaller portion of fundraised income, at 9% and 6% respectively.
Legacy giving forms a significant portion of the overall fundraising mix at 12%, with substantial growth year-on-year, suggesting a move towards more legacy marketing and, according to the Community Foundation, an unprecedented intergenerational transfer of wealth in Ireland is expected to occur between 2017 and 2036.
57% of organisations in the survey had an income below €250,000 with almost 30% reporting income below €50,000. Only 15% of organisations had income of €1,000,000 or more, and 2% reported an income of €10,000,000 or more.
Education and research received 22c of every €1 raised in 2017, while social welfare organisations received 18c of every €1. Environment and sporting organisations contributed 2% of total fundraised income each. State funding formed the majority source of income at 60%, while fundraised income accounted for 8%.
In 2017, it cost 24c to raise €1, with relationship methods of giving bringing in the highest return on investment.
The Fundraising Performance Report can be downloaded in PDF from 2into3.
Launched today our Annual Not-for-Profit Sector: Fundraising Performance report 2019#givingireland pic.twitter.com/KmjtSCHopc
— 2into3 (@2into3) September 27, 2019
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About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.