As promised, here is the results of the survey some of you filled out along with a number of others at my school and elsewhere.

Community Contribution

In general those that donate to the Zoo are middle or old aged.  Among donors there is some concern about the willingness of future generations to donate money to causes such as the Zoo.  In order to understand what the current youth population feels about donating money, for our community contribution we decided to run a survey of students ranging in age from around 15 to 25.  Through the survey we hoped to show whether these future generations are still interested in donating and if so, how it would be best to approach them.  In the end we got 46 responses to the survey with a good variation within our age range along with range in financial and social situation.

The first set of questions addresses what donation the students have already done.  85% of those surveyed answered that they have donated to a cause or organization while 15% have not.  Also asked was why they donated or why they choose not to.

There were a variety of reasons for donating.  Some stressed that having an easy way to donate that wouldn?t require too much time or effort was best.  One such way this was seen was those whose workplace could take an amount right out of their paycheck to donate.  Some reasons were completely emotional, in that donating makes them feel good, or that they felt those they donated to needed the money more.  Some donated because they greatly agreed with the cause or even were involved in the cause personally while others gave simply because they were asked such as by the Salvation Army bell ringers.  Finally some donated because there was an incentive.  One notable example of incentive is Girl Scout cookies.  It is understood that the payment is greater than the value of the cookies, but by having something to quantify the investment it makes it easier to donate.

For those that didn?t donate, the number one reason was lack of funds.  Others expanded on the lack of money by mentioning that they?d rather volunteer, donating time instead.  This is something that certainly seems an issue, even among youth with money to donate.  They have a greater desire due to free time to contribute with action.  Finally, the other reason for not donating was that many of the organizations that seek donation are tied to a specific religion, which can deter those who are non-religious, or of a different religion.

Most of the donations made reflected the preferences of groups in our second question, which was about which groups they would most likely donate to.  The most popular cause was services for the needy, which 59% said they would donate to, environmental causes were second with 46% and animal rights or habitat causes were third with 37%.    Of the groups listed on the survey, political causes ranked last with only 7% reflecting an attitude of distrust in the government.  Three groups got reasonable write in votes with health getting 13% of those surveyed saying they would donate and then 7% each for family and direct use.  These likely would have seen higher numbers had they been listed.

The third question focused on the willingness of students to give up a personal recreational expense such as a movie to donate.  The range was from 1 to 10 with an average of 6.9, which is equivalent to the median of 7.  However the most common response was 5.  While there were some who had no hesitations about giving up their own personal activities for donations, most had some reservations but still considered donating.  One common comment was why not do both, which slightly misunderstands the question but shows that there is a desire for a balance of personal and charitable spending.

The final question focused on what method of seeking donation would be most successful.  By far the most responsive method is having a friend ask to which 87% said they would give a donation.  Having a table set up collecting donations or having an article asking for donations in a newsletter/newspaper were both reasonably effective methods with 48% and 37% respectively while requests made through mail and e-mail were less effective with 22% and 15% respectively.  One main concern about the latter methods was in determining the validity of the cause asking for money.

Overall, the survey shows that students do actively seek to offer money or time to charitable causes but with a few limitations.  Certainly there is a chance of error in the results in that someone might be more optimistic in how charitable they would act which would paint an unrealistically positive picture.  Still, I think it can be concluded that there is reason to think the current young generations will continue the donating of those who currently carry the bulk of the load and that there will not be much of a drop off.