Some interesting findings and points from a CCBfast.MAP direct marketing survey, which posed various questions about donors attitudes and opinions on giving.

In a couple of areas I think it's fair to say that the results vary greatly from my own personal experience e.g. 45% of respondents said they had donated to their chosen cause for over 10 years!  Most charities I know would kill for that sort of retention rate.

One of the good things about the survey is it asks the same questions over a period of time and so you can track certain trends.  For example the rise in the popularity of e-mail as a communication method.

To me the most interesting table was this one on the reasons people stop giving to charity.

"CCB fast.MAP 2008: Please state the reasons why you stopped giving to a specific charity?

Couldn't afford it anymore 41%
Other, please specify 29%
It wasn't clear to me how my money was helping 22%
Another charity seemed like a more worthwhile cause 14%
Another charity needed my moneymore. 7%
Lack of communication from the charitythat I was donating to. 7%
A lot of media attention about the cause I decided to support instead 2%
Because I gave money instead to a recent disaster/ appeal 2%
When another charity contacted me, I liked its more personal approach 1%
I moved house and the charity did not contact me 1%
Another charity offered a freegift/incentive 0%"

The accompanying text explaining about the 'Other' reasons was especially informative with respondents expressing dismay at being 'bombarded' and charites not respecting their wishes.

Overall, I'd recommend taking a quick look at the report as there are some interesting nuggets of information.