State of Social Giving in South Africa Report Series, No. 1, 2005. CCS, SAGA and NDA.

Extract from the Paper

South Africa appears to be a nation of givers: over half of respondents (54%) gave money to charities or other causes, a third (31%) gave food or goods to charities or other causes, while slightly less than a fifth (17%) volunteered time for a charity or cause, in the month prior to being interviewed. In addition to giving to formalised institutions or causes, slightly less than half of respondents told us they gave money and/or goods (45% respectively) not to formal charities but directly to the poor – street children, people begging on the street and so on.

If we combine these different forms and methods of giving, we find that a massive 93% of respondents gave (time, money or goods, to a cause or individual) in the month before being interviewed. We deliberately cast the net as wide as possible: these figures include respondents who made monthly financial contributions to a charity as well as those (for example) who gave a sandwich or cold-drink to a street child begging at a traffic light.

Giving seems to be ingrained in respondents. Even among those scoring high on ‘alienation’ variables, 92% gave in the month prior to being interviewed, rising to 94% among those with low levels of alienation. Similarly, we found that poor and non-poor respondents were equally likely to have given in the month prior to being interviewed. ‘Giving’ is not the domain of the wealthy: it is part of everyday life for all South Africans, rich and poor alike.

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