Charity Research

A charity is something which is created to promote the public good, and is not for individuals but a group of people. Worldnet. Charities mean different things to different people, they react to charities in different ways and they give to charity in different ways.

For coursework, in groups, we had to determine what people thought about charity. Focus groups were run with 2 different age groups (studnets and over 30's) to find out just what concerned them about charitable giving. The same questions were asked to both groups as we had to compare the findings between the two groups. Running a focus group was harder then the group thought, there were so many little details that weren't exactly done and deciding who was going to do what was a trouble for the group. Focus groups have their downfalls as well. As there weren't very many people in the groups, it can create an inaccurate picture of what the group believe and could also be too consumer focused due to the vunerability to delivering what we wanted to hear. Gofton. The focus groups could have been more varied, the people in all of them tended to be girls rather than an even mixture of both genders. This would have created a bigger picture of opinions of people.

Studies by Mintel have said that as 'there are so many charities trying to acomplish the same thing, it would be hard to see the results of the market share anywhere within the market.

The results from the focus groups showed that both groups were quite similar in their thoughts of charities. The participant's all agreed that they feel more comfotable giving to well-known charities rather then just smaller ones who may not be as trusted. Charities like Cancer Research UK and the NSPCC are two of the biggest charities in the UK, these are also the ones who had the most market share in 2008. Charities like the Donkey Sanctuary are the ones that both groups said they would never give to, not only because their adverts are awful but because they didn't know exaclty where the money was going to, which was another major concern of both groups.

However, there are some significant differences as well. The student group said that they would rather participate in something then just give money, so they can feel a sense of accomplishment, and also as it would probably not be their money they were giving. These sorts of ways would be through activities they would typically do, such as drinking and gaining attention to themselves e.g. through sky diving or activities such as these. They were also more likely to give to charities maybe that their parents support or ones which they have heard of. The over 30's group however, would rather give money themselves, through giving money to a charity box or debit accounts. They are the ones also who are more likely to give to smaller, local charities. The over 30's group were also more a like to the Mintel research on who gives to charity and who doesn't. The males in the group were just like the sceptic's described (males, usually over 50 with no children, but on occasion have children but not many). The findings also showed what the over 30's thought of giving to third world countries. These results were that they were more likely then the students to give to these causes, but would much rather give to a UK charity so they can perhaps benefit from it one day or at least see it being put into action.

In the next few years, as the amount of older generation people will increase, research shows that people may start to think that it is their duty to give to charity rather then just live for themselves.

Adverts didn't have a major place in the decision making process of which charity people were going to give to. The participants mentioned about adverts like the Donkey Sanctuary not appealing to them what so ever. They said as adverts are becoming so similar for third world coountries, they are increasingly becoming less likely to give to them as it's hard to differentiate between all of them.

When asked about what adverts did affect them, the interviewees mentioned Cancer Research UK with the advert saying that they 'shouldn't be here'. These are the ones which can affect them or have affected them before.