Almost Half of Britons Have Lied About Giving, Says Survey

June 26, 2009

Almost Half of Britons Have Lied About Giving, Says Survey

A new survey suggests that British people may not be terribly honest about their philanthropy.

On the Web site of Channel 4, in London, Press Association News reports that 47 percent of respondents said they have lied about having given to charity and 26 percent said they have told fund raisers that they had already made a donation when they had not.

In addition, the survey, which polled more than 2,000 people in Britain, found that 31 percent said they were giving less time and money to charity than a year ago; 12 percent said they were giving more.

The poll was sponsored by Leap Anywhere, a Web site that connects people with charitable causes.

What do you think? If the same poll were given in America, would the findings be similar?

— Ian Wilhelm

Comments

I’m sure it’s true that all kinds of distortions occur when the public is asked to report on their charitable giving – some people exaggerate and others forget some gifts. But your reading of this survey seems a bit harsh. The Channel 4 web site reports that 47% of Brits have pretended not to have any change to donate – that’s just our polite way of saying no. If someone has gone to the trouble of standing in the street to seek collections, we don’t want to offend them, even if we choose not to support their cause. And the same goes for the 26% who claimed to have made a contribution when they hadn’t – there’s a different between pretending to be good (lying about giving in general) and white lies told to protect the egos of all involved in a face-to-face situation (lying about supporting that cause yet may well support others). It’d be great to see the original data, but on the basis of what is in the public domain, I think it is your write-up that is deceptive, not the British public!

— Beth Breeze Jun 26, 04:43 PM #
This article is over-simplifying reality. To compare the Brits and the Americans in this way would assume that the British and American models of fundraising are the same— which is completely untrue. “Charity Muggers” or street fundraisers have a much heavier presence in the UK, and as Beth notes, to say that you’ve already given is a polite way of dismissing their (often aggressive) advances. In North America (in my experience), we are not assailed by these “chuggers” to the same degree as our UK counterparts. It would be my guess that this study would be heavily influenced by the British public’s strategies for dealing with this type of fundraising, of which we don’t really have an equivalent to here.

— R Robinson Jun 29, 03:00 PM #

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Almost Half of Britons Have Lied About Giving, Says Survey

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