NEW RESEARCH HAS shown that corporate donations to charities fell by significantly compared to those from the general public during the Christmas appeal period last year.

The research, by Fundraising Ireland, showed a 27 per cent drop in corporate donations while there was just a 4.3 per cent drop in money given to charities by the public.

Anne Hanniffy, CEO of Fundraising Ireland, said the reduction in corporate donors at this crucial fundraising time was “most notable and worrying”.

Corporate donations totaled €1.2 million in Christmas 2012, down from €1.7 million the previous year. However general public donations held up stronger with nearly 300,000 donors during the festive period giving a total of €9 million.

While Hanniffy said charities understand that the economic climate is difficult for businesses, she expressed concern about the size of the drop particularly when compared to the smaller decline in general public donations.

“If businesses cannot afford the large one-off annual donations they used to make, perhaps there are other things they can do to help charities like staff giving, planned giving or cause related marketing,” she said.

The research shows that there was a particular fall off in corporate support for smaller charities.  However, it also shows that smaller charities retained, if not slightly grew, their total general public base in the same period.  Corporate Ireland also moved away from supporting charities with an overseas focus in 2012.

It showed that donors were most likely to donate to local and intervention based organisations, with charities related to illness and disease, especially cancer, accounting for over one quarter of all donors.

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