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December 18, 2017; Gov.UK

For the last 10 or 15 years, a contingent of “thought leaders” has said at every opportunity that today’s donors want metrics. However, this claim has never been proven through research. Now, there’s a small study in the UK which indicates that donors who are younger than 24 are more likely to want some background information on the charities to which they intend to give.

New research from the UK Charity Commission and Fundraising Regulator has found that younger people (between the ages of 18 and 24) are more likely than any other age group to research a charity before giving. Almost half say they generally do such checks, as compared to 29 percent of donors over 70 years of age.

Additionally, 44 percent of that younger group, as compared to a third of other age groups, said they would give up their smartphones for a month to raise £500 for their favorite charity. That age group also planned to make the highest dollar donation of all of the age groups. So much for slacktivism.

The survey was done with 2,000 respondents, weighted to reflect the general population.—Ruth McCambridge