Only 67% Of People Think Advertising Is Worthwhile

The excellent nfpSynergy released results of a poll today showing the public's perception of charities and how they spend their money. It's depressing reading and a stark reminder that the public have unrealistic and unfair standards for charities.

Businesses and charities are two different beasts, yes. But if it makes financial sense to advertise, if it's in the best interest of the organisation to pay good salaries, if it's practical to be based in London then shouldn't that apply to both businesses and charities?

To highlight the absurdity of it, try re-reading the article below, where I've changed the word 'charity' to 'business'.:


Almost three in four people have said that London-based offices and rebranding are a waste of money for businesses, an nfpParody poll of 1,002 adults has shown.

The poll was carried out as part of nfpParody's business Awareness Monitor, which surveys a representative sample of adults in Britain. Of those surveyed, 74% felt that London-based offices for businesses were a "somewhat" or "very" wasteful expenditure, with just 4% saying they were "fairly" worthwhile, and the rest saying they were unsure.

Rebranding recieved a similar response, with 72% of people saying it was wasteful for businesses to spend money on changing their name, logo or look, and just 9% saying they felt it was worthwhile.

More than half (62%) of those surveyed said they would feel confident that a business spends revenue well if staff did not travel in first class and 55% of respondents said they would feel confident if the organisation was mostly ran by volunteers. Of those surveyed, 51% said that if nobody in the organisation was paid more than £50,000 a year that would increasse their confidence in the business.

In addition, close to one in five (23%) said that they would have more confidence in a business if staff paid for their own Christmas party, while 9% felt that staff would need to work for free one day a month for them to feel confident in a business's spending.

Online tools and lobbying recieved a more positive response, with 70% of respondents saying they felt that spending money on a website was worthwhile and over half of those surveyed saying that lobbying government and other organisations (58%), as well as advertising (67%), were worthwhile.

In addition, 48% believed that producing a magazine to update customers on work that had been done was a worthwhile expenditure for businesses.