Australians are generous by nature - and the COVID pandemic has demonstrated this like never before.
Early in 2022, the Charities Aid Foundation ranks Australia as the eighth highest of more than 140 countries over 10 years (2009 to 2018) of the World Giving Index, with 60% of all Australians making a financial donation to a charity.
But it is the under-lying, everyday generosity that the team at GiveNow are always impressed by. The everyday giving by everyday Australians to the community organisations that matter to them. It is this generosity that is the fuel for the engine of our beloved community organisations.
So what do Australians give, in monetary donations, to the Australian community sector?
Donations to all Australian not for profit organisations
Our best understanding of the total monetary giving by all Australians was captured by the surveys and research conducted for the "Giving Australia" report in 2016.
In 2015/16, over 80% of adult Australians give on average $764 each year to not for profit organisations (see Giving Australia data sets).
The following chart demonstrates the changing pattern of giving by age:
Source: Giving Australia, Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies.
The following outlines the average percentage and amount donated per annum by age group.
Source: Giving Australia, Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies.
Importantly, the median amount donated is $200 per annum per donor as the above $764 average is skewed by a small number of very high value donors.
The most common value for an individual donation at anytime, to all sectors is between $20 - $29.
Source: Giving Australia, Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies.
From the research conducted by GiveNow in 2022, the average value for an individual donation is between $120 - $130. This is because online donation value is on average higher than other forms of donations.
It is worth noting that there are some areas where the Giving Australia report identified that Australians can definitely increase its giving activities, which include reflecting on the fact that:
- Only 7.4% had included a bequest to charity in their will.
- Only 2.7% of donors reported that they make regular payments to not for profit organisations via payroll deductions.
Donations to Australian registered charities
Charities are a not for profit organisation that meet specific definitions, as outlined by the ATO (see here). This subset of community organisations have to report annually to the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profit Commission so it provides different information to what we learnt in the Giving Australia report. The most recent Australian Charities Report stated that in 2020:
- Approx $12.7 billion in donations or bequests were made to charities in the 2020 reporting period. This reflected an 8% increase.
- We have no information from the ACNC about the number of donors involved in these contributions to charities, so estimates of the generosity of individuals is not possible.
- However, we can observe that donors make a very significant difference to the revenue mix of smaller charities (see chart below).
Small charities (revenue of less than $250,000pa) account for approximately two thirds of all charities. The donations made by Australians to small charities means that they can operate - without this generosity Australia would be missing the niche services of importance to specific communities.
(For excellent general charitable sector statistics beyond giving, see Australian Charities Report interactive data templates.)
Donations to tax deductible organisations
There are also statistics that relate to the generosity of monetary giving by Australians, that are drawn from the Australian Tax Office data. It is important to note that this Deductible Gift Recipient (DGR) data is a subset of total financial giving, as it includes:
- only some charities, as not all charities are tax deductible (see definitions required for DGR status here). A subset of the subset of not for profit organisations.
- plus only some donors include all their donations in their tax returns, the basis for this ATO information.
The following is information taken from the most recent report (September 2022) by The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies (see here) which draws from 2019-20 ATO data:
- 4.34 million Australian taxpayers (or 29% of the Australian taxpaying population) made and claimed tax-deductible donations.
- The total amount donated and claimed as tax-deductible donations was $3.85 billion (compared to $3.93 billion for the previous income year). This constitutes a decrease of 2.11 per cent or $83 million from the previous income year.
- The average tax-deductible donation made to DGRs and claimed by Australian taxpayers in 2019–20 was $886.75
- The median tax-deductible donation has increased slightly from $120 to $130 in 2019–20.
- On average, those individual taxpayers who make tax-deductible donations donated approximately 0.40% of their taxable income.
- Approximately 2.08 million males claimed tax deductions to a total value of $2.18 billion, compared with 2.26m females who claimed donations totalling $1.67 billion.
Most recent original data reports on Australian's donations:
- An Examination of Tax-Deductible Donations Made By Individual Australian Taxpayers in 2019-20, The Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies, QUT (Sept 2022)
- Australian Charities Report - 8th edition, (Revenue sources table) ACNC (June 2022)
- CAF World Giving Index 2022, Charities Aid Foundation (2022)
- Charitable Giving Index, JB Were and NAB (Jan 2022)
- Giving Trends and Opportunities, Philanthropy Australia (2022)
- Philanthropy and Charitable Giving, Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (Sept 2021)
- Giving Australia, Individual Giving and Volunteering, Prime Minister's Community Business Partnership (2017). Full report series, see here.
- Foundation Maps: Australia, Philanthropy Australia, Our Community & Candid (updated 2019)
Other excellent reports regarding donations:
- Who Gives, GiveNow (Dec 2017)
- A Snapshot of Australian Giving, Koda Capital (Oct 2018)
- Australia's Biggest Givers, JBWere and AFR (May 2020)
- The Support Report, JBWere and John Macleod (June 2018)