Who gives what? New findings on charitable giving
Women donate more than men, old more than young. That, however, is only true for monetary donations. In the case of donating blood, social and financial differences are of far less importance. These are results from a study on Germans’ willingness to make donations by Eckhard Priller (WZB) and Jürgen Schupp (DIW) based on data from the Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP).
Germans donated approximately 5.3 billion Euro in the year 2009 – the middle of the financial and economic crisis. The type and amount of the donations are well documented in Germany. Only little information has been available until now about which Germans share their income with the needy. Based on a new poll within a long-term study conducted by the SOEP, it is now possible to look into comprehensive questions such as: From which social classes do donators come from? Does a high income increase the willingness to donate? Do education and age play a role? Do happy people donate more? Are the motives behind monetary and other types of donations, like for example donating blood, the same? In order to find answers to these questions, existing data sources on the readiness of Germans’ to donate were analyzed and verified and compared with SOEP data for the first time.