Posted on 11th March 2010
A new report claims rich people are willing to fund commercial innovation, and calls on charities to be bolder in asking major donors to fund revenue-generating activities.
The poll published by Social Investment Consultancy (TSIC), surveyed 476 high net worth individuals in the UK - defined as those holding over £100,000 in investable assets - about their attitude towards helping charities become more self-sufficient. Just under half (44%) of respondents claimed they would be more likely to make a philanthropic gift if their donation went towards revenue generating purposes, whilst only five per cent claimed this would deter them from making a donation.
These results show that donors are willing to do more than make programmatic donations, and are interested in helping to make charitable activities more sustainable, the report states. Commenting on the poll, Sir Richard Branson is quoted in the report saying, “It’s so exciting to see the growing opportunity for charities and donors to work together to create new entrepreneurial approaches to help drive the scale of change we need in the world”.
Jake Hayman, CEO of TSIC a consulting firm that operates at the intersection of the for- and non-profit worlds, attributes the findings to the changing socio-economic characteristics of contemporary major donors, saying, “Philanthropists have the appetite to give creatively… such attitudes are not surprising, given that three-quarters of philanthropists are now self-made when a generation ago the majority had inherited their wealth”.
Hayman claims that the report proves there is a potential to enlarge the role of social enterprise in the philanthropic mix, but that this opportunity must be “aggressively pursued” in order to be realised.
TSIC commissioned YouGov to conduct the survey, which took place between 22nd and 26th January 2010.
The report is available to download from the TSIC website.
