Charities now drive moral agenda, research shows

• Bullying, discrimination and buying the fruits of child labour: amongst activities that society adjudges most immoral
• Cohabitation and sex before marriage: amongst least unethical activities, say public
• “Charities working at front line of moral relevancy, tackling what public deem to be our ‘modern-day sins’”, claims Saxton

Charities and campaigners are tackling the activities society most deems unethical, whilst issues still vexing many religions have less moral relevancy - according to new data (click here for slides - CAM Modern Sins (71.54KB) ).

Leading not for profit sector think tank and research consultancy nfpSynergy’s Charity Awareness Monitor surveys a representative sample of 1000 16+ year olds throughout mainland Britain every year, asking them a range of charity-related questions, including which human activities they most consider immoral or unethical.

“Bullying” tops a wide-ranging prompted list, adjudged immoral or very immoral by 87% of people, trailed by “discriminating against people because they are different” (81%), “buying goods that have been produced using child workers” (75%) and a plethora of other activities and issues – many of them highlighted and challenged by charities and campaigners today. At the other end of the modern-day “sin spectrum”, the activities considered least immoral are “living together before marriage” (14%) and “having sex before marriage” (13%) – activities still the subject of many religious pronouncements and teachings.

Environmentalists may be pleased that those who consider “buying goods that caused a large environmental impact in their manufacture” to be in any way unethical rose from 45% to 49%, year-on-year; as did “buying goods that can’t be recycled” (up from 45% to 49%) and “buying goods that have been air-freighted into the country” (up from 16% to 19%). Road safety campaigners may be heartened that those who deem “breaking the speed limit” to be unethical increased significantly too, from 47% to 54%. And - encouragingly for fundraisers, and for charities more generally - those considering “never giving to charity” to be unethical also increased - by a hearty 9 percentage points, from 34% to 43%.

nfpSynergy’s Driver of Ideas, Joe Saxton, comments:
“This new research shows that many charities are now working at the very front line of moral relevancy, tackling issues and activities that the public deem to be most unethical – society’s ‘modern-day sins’. By contrast, many religious groups and organisations seem to lag behind. Some still seem preoccupied with issues such as pre-marital cohabitation and sex, whilst remaining relatively silent on certain other moral areas this data shows are of far greater concern to most people, and indeed many charities - such as ethical consumerism, animal experimentation and environmental matters.”

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MEDIA INTERVIEWS: To interview nfpSynergy’s Joe Saxton about the significance of these latest findings, or for finer-grained demographic breakdown of this data, please contact:
Adrian Gillan, T: 0207 6 22 99 11; M: 0774 086 7215; E: adrian@gillanmedia.com


Notes to editors:
• nfpSynergy
nfpSynergy (www.nfpsynergy.net) is the UK’s only think-tank and research consultancy dedicated to the charity sector and not for profit issues. It provides ideas, insights and information to help voluntary and community organisations thrive in an ever-changing world. Regularly harvesting the social and charity-related views of public and parliament, media and business - not to mention not for profit organisations themselves - nfpSynergy has a vast and ever-growing knowledge pool from which to extract and deliver insights.

• Joe Saxton
As well as being Driver of Ideas at nfpSynergy – the leading not for profit sector think tank and research consultancy he founded back in 2002 - Joe Saxton was until recently chair (2005-2008) at the Institute of Fundraising; and is currently chair at student environment and development campaign group, People & Planet, as well as chair of CharityComms, the new professional body for not for profit communicators.

Named by The Guardian (2003) as one of the 100 most influential people vis-à-vis UK social policy, Joe was voted the most influential person in UK fundraising by Professional Fundraising magazine in 2005, 2006, 2007 & 2008. The Evening Standard named him one of the 1000 most influential people in London in both 2007 and 2008. In 2008 he was also named as one of PR Week’s 500 most influential people in the UK communications sector.