New research released today shines a light on UK giving, highlighting the appetite many people have to respond to increased need in their community by giving more money, time or energy to causes.

The research was commissioned by Give More, a new UK wide campaign launched today, which seeks to celebrate giving and encourage those who can to give more money, time or energy to causes over the next 12 months and to inspire others to do the same.

The key findings of the research, carried out by YouGov, include:

62% of UK adults have given time, money or energy to causes they care about in the last 6 months

51% said that they thought need in their local community has increased in the past 12 months and 57% said that need is likely to increase over the next 12 months

79% think the UK is generous when it comes to giving money, time and energy to charities, community groups or directly to the community

43% agree that the 'bulldog spirit' of the past is still strong in the UK and we will roll up our sleeves and respond to the problems the UK is facing

More women are passionate about good causes (19%) than they are about sex (14%)

The causes people care most deeply about are children and young people (16%), health (16%) and animals (11%)

26% said they could give more to good causes than they currently do (representing approximately 12.5m people*)

From a list, people are most inspired to give to good causes by their children (25%), their mother (11%) and their friends (9%)

Martyn Lewis, chair of the National Council for Voluntary Organisations and Give More supporter, said: “Need is clearly going up in our communities as they have to deal with high unemployment, food poverty, soaring living costs and a decline in resources, and charities and community groups are struggling to cope with the increased demand while also feeling the pinch themselves.

"Our natural response might be to look to the public sector, but it can’t deal with all the issues. The answer lies with all of us, the general public.”

"Our aim is simple but ambitious - to encourage as many people as possible to join together and make a public commitment to give more money, time or energy to good causes over the next twelve months and to encourage others to do the same.

"We rarely talk about giving, but if we don’t shout about the good work going on up and down the UK, many charities and community groups may cease to exist and our communities could suffer. We can’t let that happen.”

Give More has used the results of the research to create a Giving Nations map which illustrates the UK wide causes we care about and our giving on a national, regional and local level.

For more information go here.

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