December 2011 Quick Survey Analysis

By Jay Kennedy, Head of Policy, Directory of Social Change

In December we changed things up and ran a Quick Quiz instead of a Quick Survey.

Our quiz asked people to guess which celebrity had given the most to charity recently.  There were 177 responses to the quiz. 

Respondents were also entered into a draw to win one of five copies of Patrons, Presidents & Personalities - DSC’s book on securing and keeping high-profile volunteers (they were entered regardless of whether they got the correct answer or not).

The options and response rates were:

And the correct answers* are:

        
*Many thanks to the Sunday Times Giving List sponsored by Charities Aid Foundation for supplying the correct answers.

It was a close call, with most respondents guessing that JK Rowling gave the most, when in fact it was Sir Elton John – however, over a third of people guessed correctly.

There were also 29 comments left, a selection of which appear below.

Many people made positive comments about celebrity giving, often pointing out that giving publicity could be as valuable as giving money because of the potential to boost the charity’s profile:

"On the whole I think most celebrities do their bit for charitable causes!"

"Some 'celebs' give their name to a charity, some financial and some maybe their time. Having a celebrity support your cause can be very useful in encouraging others to give financial support and to raise awareness…"

"It's great that a lot of celebrities do give a proportion of their money to charity - I suspect many give more than we think, but I think more importantly than that, celebrities can make a real difference by giving their time and support to promoting charities' work.  This is a way to increase the profile of charities and to spread the word about their key issues."

A number of people pointed out that many celebrities do give anonymously or discreetly, so the full scale of celebrity giving isn’t recognised:

"Giving doesn't always match wealth or profile. And some 'slebs' are anonymously generous."

"Some tend to give and don’t blow their own trumpets."

"I think most do give but without the fuss as they like to do it anonymously."

A few people questioned whether celebrities were doing enough, or suggested more could be done to get them to lead by example:

"I think I can safely say they should give more!"

"Rich celebrities should inspire others by giving 10% of their income to charity."

"It needs to be made fashionable to give to charity, so that everyone will want to do it."

"Should be encouraged, great selling point to others to engage in charitable giving."

"Celebrities have such vast wealth that if they can use some of it to benefit others they should be applauded. You can only use so much money in a lifetime."

Some also argued that it would be helpful if more celebrities gave to smaller, lesser known organisations as opposed to big name charity brands:

"Would be nice if they gave to small charities on the ground at grass roots and not just the big and famous ones."

"I would love a celebrity to give to our tiny charity!"

"For a small charity, a celebrity networking amongst his/her peers could also be very valuable. "

"Celebrity giving - great if you can get it :-)"