The Assistant Minister for Social Services and Multicultural Affairs, Senator the Hon Zed Seselja, launched Giving Australia 2016 last week at Parliament House.
Seselja said the Australian Government provided $1.7 million for the three-year research project to better understand how and why Australians give and volunteer, how much they donate and how these factors affect our non-profit and philanthropy sector.
Giving Australia 2016 is said to be the largest review of giving and volunteering in Australia and will establish benchmark data to measure philanthropic and business giving. The research also provides a strong evidence base to assist future policy decisions to encourage charity in Australia.
Giving Australia 2016 findings include:
- 14.9 million Australians gave $12.5 billion to charities and non-profit organisations over 12 months in 2015-16
- planned givers donate six times more than spontaneous givers
- our Australian volunteers are generous with their time and money. Over 12 months in 2015-16, Australians volunteered 932 million hours and donated an average of $1,017, which is nearly double the contribution of non-volunteers
- corporate philanthropy is thriving – with large business giving $9 billion and small and medium enterprises giving $8.5 billion, totalling $17.5 billion over the previous financial year.
The research, commissioned by the Department of Social Services, is led by the Australian Centre for Philanthropy and Nonprofit Studies at Queensland University of Technology, in partnership with the Swinburne University of Technology and the Centre for Corporate Public Affairs.
“The most comprehensive national giving and volunteering study took place more than a decade ago in 2004-05 (Giving Australia 2005). So the effort in 2016 to examine this area is not just worthy but exciting and essential and will help to paint a more vivid picture of philanthropy in Australia,” said Lead researcher and ACPNS Director, Associate Professor Wendy Scaife.
“We need to know too the ideas and opportunities and give breath to innovation if we want change and improvement. When countries undertake national studies of this kind – and many do – thousands of people are directly involved, major opinion leaders activated and a climate for change cultivated. Research breeds action. That is why this research is so important.”