Fundraising activities for charities take place virtually every day, and Irish people are not slow to dig into their pockets - it is estimated that nine out of 10 people regularly donate money to charitable causes.
However, as the majority of people need to be prompted to give, charities must keep renewing their appeals and approaches to the public. In the past year several of the main charities have begun to outsource some of their fundraising programmes because of the difficulty of organising ongoing volunteer collections.
Two British professional fundraising operations are currently working in the Republic: Personal Fundraising Partnership and Caring Together. They work on a fee rather than a commission basis and canvas members of the public to sign up for regular donations through a standing order. The professional fundraisers work door-to-door and on the street.
Concern uses both organisations and, according to appeals director Mr Tobin Aldrich, there has been very good reaction to fundraising in the last six months. "We monitor expenditure very carefully and what we are getting for our money. As a rule we would expect to raise £4 for every £1 spent."
According to Mr Aldrich, more than 5,000 people have signed up with the street and door-to-door recruiters, and there have only been a handful of complaints. People who do agree to a standing order with a Concern representative are called afterwards by a member of staff to ensure they are happy with their decision and did not feel pressurised.
Charities raise money through a range of other methods including direct mail, inserts, payroll and standing-order schemes, sponsored events, church gate and street collections, advertising and special appeals. There are also countless smaller and more informal fundraising activities such as raffles, cake sales and school or workplace collections.
Different methods of fundraising provoke different responses in different people. Recent research on charitable giving carried out for the Policy Research Centre found that 27 per cent of the respondents disliked certain types of charity appeal. Door-to-door collections, appeals by specific named charities, bucket collections and appeals for sports were the top four types of appeal particularly disliked.
People in the Republic are more likely to respond to a major appeal and to a street collection than people in Northern Ireland. However, according to a survey commissioned by Oxfam Ireland, those in the North are more likely to respond to door-to-door collections and to set up direct debits than those in the Republic. The results of the survey have helped the charity improve its fundraising strategy. The commercial approach of the larger charities and their successful use of business disciplines such as marketing and public relations have produced a dynamic fundraising environment.
Irish people are extremely responsive to emergency situations, according to Ms Stephanie Casey, marketing and fundraising manager with Oxfam Ireland. "Some charities talk about donor fatigue but we haven't found that to be the case. When there is a natural disaster or war situation people tend to respond very generously," Ms Casey said.
Oxfam Ireland raised £2.7 million (€3.43 million) in the year to April 30th last, of which 12.2 per cent was spent on management and administration. The Policy Research Centre report looked at people's preferences for individual charities, and found that 62 per cent of respondents had particular preferences for either local, national or developing world charities. Among these, local charities were by far the most frequently preferred, accounting for two-thirds of all first preferences. This was because people preferred to prioritise local needs. The Society of St Vincent de Paul is a giant among Irish charities and benefits from a strong degree of loyalty and support. The society has 1,000 branches and its total income for the year ended March 31st last was £19 million. Church collections alone raised almost £6 million. The Irish Cancer Society is a much smaller agency but has a large portfolio of services. The society is entirely funded by donations and its annual income for 1999 was £3.7 million.
One-third of that amount comes from a single event - Daffodil Day. It is the single most successful one-day charity event in Ireland and raised £1.6 million last year.
According to chief executive, Mr Barry Dempsey, there are problems and advantages associated with deriving so much income from one source. Funding must be sustainable if the society is to continue its work. The cancer charity has a system for operating standing orders, but it is not a significant part of its fundraising efforts. High-participation events like the Women's Mini-Marathon and the Terry Fox Run are reliable sources of funding.
Charitable bequests are not as common here as in other European countries. "In most European countries, national cancer charities would expect to receive one-third of all income from bequests. Here it is less than 10 per cent," Mr Dempsey said.
Some charities, including Concern and the Irish Cancer Society, have taken part in credit card affinity schemes as a means of raising money. The charity earns commission for every customer that signs up to a co-branded card. This practice is well established in the UK, but has not been a great success here.
It's more than three years since the Concern card was launched, but there are only 1,200 cardholders to date. This is a small contribution when compared with the 100,000 cash and standing-order donations that the charity received in 1999, which added up to £14.8 million from voluntary donations. Most reputable charities publish annual audited accounts, and donors should be able to obtain a copy on request. As well as detailing the work undertaken during the year, the annual report should contain a breakdown of costs, including how much is spent on administration.
