If Gallup’s World Giving Index 2010 is any indication, then Australia and New Zealand are prosperous, happy and generous nations:
Australia and New Zealand are, jointly, the most ‘giving’ countries in the world. These countries both boast a World Giving Index score (the average of their scores on ‘giving money’, ‘giving time’, and ‘helping a stranger’) of 57%. ….
both countries appear in the top twenty for all three behaviours…..
The link between the giving of money and happiness is stronger (a coefficient of 0.69) than the link between the giving of money and the GDP of a nation (0.58). It would be reasonable to conclude that giving is more an emotional act than a rational one….
The Queensland University of Technology’s Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies February 2011 report on major gift giving indicates that most of this giving is historically done in Australia by people making donations ranging from $1 to $3,000.
In New Zealand the most common form of giving is the ad hoc donation of money or goods to an appeal, with the highest level of support going to clubs/community organisations and primary/secondary education, according to a 2009 discussion paper.
So all those ordinary wage earners, self-funded retirees, pensioners and generous others residing on each side of The Ditch who are buying jam from street stalls, raffle tickets from school children, emptying small change into the hands of door-to-door charity collectors or sending modest cheques to a worthy cause – take a bow because you lead the world.
1 comment:
I will give a bit to door knockers, or to the salvo army bloke who frequents Adelaide's east-end pubs ...
But I refuse to give any more to phone ringers or other more organised schemes ('membership' or so on). Once you get on their phone list they wont stop bugging you every year for some extra dough for something or other. I find such behaviour somewhat abusive of the relationship.
Charities and medical research (cancer charities are borderline scams if you ask me) get plenty of dough from the govt and i'm happy enough to pay taxes to fund that.
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