OLDER people are giving more money to religious organisations
online, research carried out by the JustGiving website
suggests.
The research cites data from a survey of 2000 people in the UK,
carried out by ICM. It suggests that, between 2007 and 2011, the
amount of money given online to religious organisations by those
aged over 60 increased by 171 per cent.
The head of insight at JustGiving, Elizabeth Kessick, said:
"Supporters of religious causes tend to be part of strong,
tight-knit communities. They recognise the importance of
tax-efficient giving, so encourage their peers to follow suit."
A separate piece of research, published by the Association for
Psychological Science (APS) in the United States in
Psychological Science last week, suggests that the more
people think about giving rather than receiving, the more likely
they are to be generous to others.
After conducting an experiment with two groups of fund-raisers,
the APS said that those who had been encouraged to write entries in
a journal about "recent experiences in which they made a
contribution that enabled other people to feel grateful" made
greater voluntary efforts in their work, which were not rewarded
financially.
A second group, who wrote about feeling grateful for receiving a
benefit, did not change their habits.