Charity in Ukrainian / Issue No. 2: Who needs help and who really gets it?

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01.02.2011

Charity in Ukrainian / Issue No. 2: Who needs help and who really gets it?

Rating Group continues to present the results of a company-funded special project “Charity the Ukrainian Way.” In December, Issue No. 1, “Helping during the New Year holidays,” was released. According to the survey conducted by Rating Group, about 7% of respondents engage in charitable activities on a regular basis, at least once a month, while another 16% do so several times a year. Thus, no more than one quarter of the adult population of Ukraine engages in charity at least once a year. Another 16% have done so several times in the past, while 61% have never engaged in charitable activities.
The share of respondents who stated that they have never been involved in charity ranges from about one half in the West and South to more than 70% in Donbas and the East. Those who have never engaged in charity are most common among people aged 18–29 and 30–39. These are predominantly people with lower levels of education and income, mostly unmarried, slightly more often men than women, and by social status mainly homemakers, students, workers, and the unemployed.
When asked which areas most require charitable support, respondents most often named orphanages (64%), homeless children (62%), and children with disabilities (58%). Somewhat less often they mentioned elderly people in need of assistance (42%), nursing homes (41%), severe diseases (37%), low-income families (32%), and adults with disabilities (26%). Further down the list were homeless adults (18%), healthcare development (17%), human rights protection (11%), people begging on the streets (11%), animal protection (10%), youth in need of support (10%), and gifted youth (9%). These were followed by the church (8%), environmental protection (8%), drug and alcohol addiction (7%), and people with psychological disorders (5%). At the bottom of the list were education and science (4%), prisoners (3%), people repressed by the authorities (3%), art and culture (2%), national minority issues (1%), and other causes (1%), while 1% of respondents could not decide. Overall, among all areas in need of charity, the unquestionable leader is the category of children.
The analysis also shows that donors themselves can be grouped. Based on responses to the question “In which of these areas have you personally engaged in charity?”, a “charity matrix” was constructed that identifies clusters of correlated activities, forming eight psychological groups: those helping children with disabilities, orphanages, adults with disabilities, nursing homes, and people with severe diseases; those donating to the church and to people begging on the streets; those helping homeless children and homeless adults; those supporting low-income families and elderly people in need; those contributing to education and science, gifted youth, art and culture, and healthcare development; those supporting animal and environmental protection; those helping people with psychological disorders and those affected by drug and alcohol addiction; and those engaged in human rights protection and support for youth in need.
The areas that respondents say most need charitable support differ sharply from the areas in which they actually provide help. Although the lists were identical, in practice the most common form of charity is giving alms on the street, reported by 40% of those who have ever engaged in charity. This is followed by helping homeless children (33%), donating to the church (30%), and helping elderly people in need (29%). Somewhat less often respondents donate to orphanages (25%), children with disabilities (24%), and low-income families (21%), as well as to causes related to severe diseases (15%), homeless adults (14%), nursing homes (11%), and adults with disabilities (10%). No more than 5% help in the remaining categories, including healthcare development (5%), youth in need (4%), animal protection (4%), and human rights protection (3%). Support for people with psychological disorders, environmental protection, and gifted youth is reported by no more than 2%.
The most popular form of charity in Western Ukraine is donations to the church (58%), while in the Center it is support for homeless children (51%). Giving alms is most common in the North (54%), East (39%), South (36%), and Donbas (27%). Support for elderly people is most widespread in the South and Donbas, including donations to nursing homes and homeless adults. Donations to healthcare development are most common in the North, primarily Kyiv, support for orphanages in the East, and for severe diseases in the Center.
Overall, the findings suggest that the most active forms of charity are giving alms and donating to the church, as in these areas the number of people who actually donate is more than twice the number who consider these causes the most in need. By contrast, the least active areas of charity are drug and alcohol addiction, education and science, gifted youth, healthcare development, environmental protection, and nursing homes. Other under-supported areas include people repressed by the authorities, people with psychological disorders, adults and children with disabilities, human rights protection, orphanages, severe diseases, animal protection, art and culture, and prisoners. At the same time, in many of these less active areas, choices to donate were made consciously, as nine out of ten respondents who supported gifted youth, nursing homes, children with disabilities, or orphanages also believe these causes are among those most in need of support. These results again raise a set of questions about the apparent contradiction between people’s stated priorities and their actual charitable behavior.

Methodology

Survey organization: Rating Group.
Survey population: adult population of Ukraine aged 18 and older.
Sample size: 2,000 respondents.
Method: face-to-face formalized interview using a structured questionnaire.
Sampling error: no more than 3.0% for values close to 50%, no more than 2.6% for values close to 30%, and no more than 1.8% for values close to 10%.
Fieldwork dates: 11–18 December 2010.