Project "Ukrainian Charity". Part 1: Help during New Year holidays!
The sociological group "Rating" starts the project "Ukrainian Charity", which will include a series of issues dedicated to charity in Ukraine, attitude of Ukrainian citizens to it, research possibilities of activity of professional organizations and ordinary people in this field.
The project is funded by the company.
Today we present the first part "Help during New Year holidays!". We sincerely hope that this information will inspire readers to act.
Thus, according to the research, conducted by the Sociological Group "Rating" in December 2010, over a quarter of respondents (27%) would like to give to charity during New Year holidays. Other 20% did not think about it so far.
Nevertheless, nearly a half of respondents (47%) did not have such a wish. 6% of respondents could not decide on the matter.
The majority of people, who are willing to give to charity during New Year holidays, are in the West (41%), in the Centre (35%) and in the South (29%). The lowest number - in the North (20%) and in Donbas (15%).
Women proved to be a little more willing to help than men, as well as people, who live in villages, as opposed to city residents. Married and unmarried people want to donate to charity more than divorced and widowed people.
More educated people were more willing to give to charity than less educated people. Also there is a clear dependency of respondents’ answers on the financial state: the better is the financial situation, the more willing are people to give to charity during New Year holidays.
In terms of social status or occupation, the greatest wish to donate to charity during New Year holidays was shown by managers, specialists, entrepreneurs and employees. The smallest wish – by workers, pensioners, housewives and unemployed people. Students did not usually think about this matter.
Respondents, who were not against charity during New Year holidays, or those who did not think about it, were given the opportunity to specify obstacles that might prevent them from donating.
As a result, only 16% of them stated they saw no obstacles in giving to charity during New Year holidays.
The rest - and that is almost 80% - found arguments: 59% of respondents stated that their own financial capabilities were an obstacle, 10% - lack of information about people who need help, 5% - lack of information about how to do it, other 3% - there might not be enough time.
Thus, we can assume that among 27% of respondents who expressed a wish to give to charity during New Year holidays, only every fifth will do it in reality. It means that this New Year only about 5-6% of Ukrainians will donate to charity.
Among 41% of residents of the West and 35% of residents of the Center, who wanted to help – these regions are leaders in terms of wish to help, only 16% and 11% respectively do not see any obstacles to do so. In the Center the main obstacle is lack of information about people who need help and about ways to help, in the West - financial capabilities of citizens (here people know how and where to do it).
In terms of all citizens, we can expect real help during New Year holidays only from 7% of residents of the South, 7% - of the West, 4% - of the Centre, 4% - of the North, 3% - of the East and 2% of Donbas.
Lack of information about people who need help is the biggest obstacle to those respondents, whose financial situation allows saving a lot. Less wealthy respondents mentioned this factor a lot more rarely.
Only 16% of respondents said that “every citizen including myself” should be responsible for giving charity during New Year holidays to ones who need it. At the same time, 28% of citizens transferred responsibility to local charity organizations and foundations, 28% - to the government, 17% - to wealthy people, 4% - to international organizations and foundations, 3% - to political parties.
Interestingly, people, who did not show any wish to donate to charity during New Year holidays, transferred responsibility for it to wealthy people and to the government. Instead, respondents, who are willing to give to charity and do not see any obstacles to do so, showed the highest level of personal responsibility for those who need help during New Year holidays.
The highest level of citizens’ awareness of their responsibility for the charity was among residents of the South. Most of them are middle-aged people with a secondary special education and an average income.
Residents of the West and the North mostly transfer responsibility for giving help to people who need it during New Year holidays to the government, citizens of Donbas and the Centre – to charity foundations. Respondents in the East believe that wealthy people should be responsible for charity.
Three "whys?": Why things, which are so logical from the perspective of sociology, become so illogical if they are analyzed from the perspective of human kindness? Why does our rather big (27%) wish to donate to charity hides behind the most convenient, the most popular obstacles in the process of its implementation? Why does the wish to help others survive only with 5-6% of citizens as a result of this difficult struggle between household and spiritual comfort?
The target audience of the research: the population of Ukraine aged from 18 and older. Optional quantity: 2000 respondents. The methods of investigation: personal formalized interview according to the questionnaire (face to face). Measure of inaccuracy for the values close to 50% is less than 3%, for the values close to 30% – less than 2,6%, for the values close to 10% – less than 1,8. The period of completion: 11-18 of December 2010
The oblast’ distribution:
West: Volyns’ka, Transcarpathia, Ivano–Frankivs’ka, L’vivs’ka, Rivnens’ka, Ternopil’s’ka, Chernivets’ka.
Centre: Vinnyts’ka, Kirovograds’ka, Poltavs’ka, Khmel’nyts’ka, Cherkas’ka.
North: Kyiv, Kyivs’ka, Zhytomyrs’ka, Sums’ka, Chernihivs’ka.
South: AR Crimea, Odes’ka, Khersons’ka, Mykolaivs’ka, Sevastopol
East: Dnipropetrovs’ka, Zaporiz’ka, Kharkivs’ka.
Donbass: Donets’ka, Luhans’ka.
