Majority less likely to donate to charity since top-ups controversy

A substantial majority of Irish people are less likely to contribute to charity because of the top-ups controversy, according to the latest Irish Times, Ipsos MRBI opinion poll.

The poll also showed almost total opposition among the voting age population to the practice of paying top-ups from donations to pay the salaries of executives in the charity sector.

A massive 96 per cent of respondents said that donations should not be used to top-up the salaries of executives, 2 per cent felt it was acceptable and 2 per cent had no opinion. The near total unanimity of the response spanned all classes, regions and party affiliation.

Asked if they were more or less likely to contribute to charity in the light of the disclosures, 69 per cent of respondents said they were less likely to donate, 23 per cent said it would make no difference, 4 per cent said they didn’t donate anyway or the question wasn’t relevant and 4 per cent had no opinion.

There were some variations across the age groups with the youngest 18 to 24 group not as affected by the controversy but that was because the number who didn’t contribute anyway was higher among this age cohort than in any other.

People in all classes and all regions and supporters of all the political parties and groupings gave similar responses. The poll was conducted last Monday and Tuesday among a representative sample of 1,000 voters in all 43 Dáil constituencies. The margin of error is plus or minus 3 per cent.

Drop in donations
The poll result confirms the claim by Fundraising Ireland that charity donations have dropped by up to 40 per cent in the wake of the top-up payments controversy. At the weekend the umbrella group for professional fundraisers said charities were receiving phone calls on an hourly basis from people looking to cancel donations.

Chief executive Anne Hanniffy said two weeks of ongoing revelations about donations being used to top up salaries was having a devastating impact on the sector. She said the revelations were a "million miles" from the activities or experiences of most organisations but that it seemed all charities were being tarred with the same brush. "There is no denying but that this is one of the most serious periods faced by the Irish non-profit sector" said Ms Hanniffy.

“I have been on the phone constantly to organisations over the past two weeks and they are extremely concerned that the people least able to live without their support – sick children, people with disabilities, families in need – are the ones who will be most affected by this crisis in both confidence and donations,” she added.