Wealthy people more self-serving when it comes to giving to charity, says UBC study

A University of British Columbia (UBC)study has found the richare more likely to give to charity when they feel they're furthering themselves by donating and charities could stand to benefit by appealing to those kinds of people.

The research, led byPhD candidate AshleyWhillans, looked at the effect of wealth on willingness to donate to non-profit organizations.

Working adults from Vancouver and Chicago, Ill. were told to watch one of two messages from charities: oneadvertisingwhat they, individually, could do to help a causeand the other demonstrating what they could do "together" with other donors.

The study measured which respondentsdonated to charityand how much they gave.

Richer respondents were found to be more self-serving in their giving:they donated when the charity's appeal was focused on their own personal goals.

The poorer gave more to charities preaching a sense of community among donors.

"We were interested in understanding messages that might encourage giving, particularly among those with the greatest capacity to give," Whillans said.

Whillanssays the findings are in line with previous research on why people give.

"Having more money gives us more personal control in our daily lives, and as a result, we tend to focus on our own needs and goals ...sometimes at the expense of focusing on others," she said.

The researchersaid charities could get more bang for their advertising buck if they tweak their messagingto appeal to a variety of donors but particularly the ones with more to spend.

"People donate to charity because they feel as if it's personally compelling to them," Whillans said. "It will be exciting for charities to put these messages to practice and to see whether or not these kinds of tailored messages work."

• Christmas charity: how much to give, and to whom?
• Check charity before you give this season, watchdog says

In 2013, 82 per cent of Canadians over the age of 15 donated to charity. Contributions fromprimary donors in B.C.went up 47 per cent from2004 to2013.

Most gave to a religious, health orsocial services organization.

With files from Deborah Goble