Study title

Abstract copyright UK Data Service and data collection copyright owner.

The National Survey of Volunteering and Charitable Giving was commissioned by the Office of the Third Sector in the Cabinet Office. The research was carried out by the National Centre for Social Research in partnership with the Institute for Volunteering Research (IVR) in 2006-2007, as a follow-up to the Citizenship Survey, 2005 (deposited at the UKDA under SN 5367).

The survey interviewed just over 2,700 adults in households in England. The aim was to explore how and why people give unpaid help to organisations, and what they think of their experiences; what stops people from volunteering or giving money to charity; and how and why people give money to charity. It builds upon IVR’s National Survey of Volunteering, last carried out in 1997 (deposited at the UKDA under SN 3931), and provides some insights into how things have changed since then.


Main Topics:

The Helping Out survey asked about:

• nature and extent of volunteering (last 12 months and last 1-5 years)
• main organisation helped
• barriers to giving help
• employer-supported volunteering and giving
• nature and extent of charitable giving (last 4 weeks and last 12 months)
• perceptions of giving
• knowledge and use of tax-efficient giving methods
• links between giving time and giving money
• demographics