The German Donor Market

The German donor market is something unique. There aren't any products that one can buy, nor are there any customers or producers. Nevertheless, there's still a lot of money to be had.

Abstract

The so-called donor market is where people who want to use money to support social initiatives connect with people who are engaging in social actions. This market is unusual, in that it doesn't deal in products that can be bought or sold. The supporters are paying more often than not for a service that will help a third party. Most of the time, it is not possible to donate directly to the third party, but rather through a mediator or an organization.

Outside of the state-, church- and foundation-run programs, social giving is an interaction between beneficiaries, donors and – mostly nonprofit – organizations.

The donor market is a part of the social sector in which relevant choices are made: what should one donate for? How should one donate? How much and how often should one donate? Although the available data to answer such questions is often incomplete, it is still possible to answer these questions to some extent.

A large portion of social activity in Germany is financed from private donations. From obesrving the volume of the donation market, one can draw worthwhile conclusions about the economic scale of the entire social sector.

A fundamental understanding of the traditional, offline donor market is important for a complete analysis of the social sector. How does this market function? How is it structured? Which characteristics define both sides of the market? The betterplace lab investigates some of these questions and posts our presentations and findings here.

Data

The Federal office of Statistics is the most reliable resource for income tax statistic data for our German donor market study.

Information about donor characteristics and application of donations is provided by population surveys from the market research institutes TNS Infratest and GfK.

A recent study from the German Central Institute for Social Inquiry provides information about giving in Germany, a part of which is based on a population survey.

Please contact from the betterplace lab team with any questions. Or just use our contact formula.