Donation Trends in Japan⑤: Donation means (Giving Japan 2015) Reports

---

Posted on June 07, 2016
by Giving Japan

---

Online donation increases slightly. “Hometown tax donation” and “Gifts with donation” are expected to see a future increase as more people showed an interest.

As for means of making a donation, while direct delivery of cash either by hand, donation box or street fund-raising remains high, there is a tendency of more increase in on-line card settlement than other means compared with 2012.

In terms of donation means by category, among those who make a donation only to “Category 1,” such as emergency disaster relief, international cooperation/exchange and others, means of using “Donation box,” “Credit card settlement,” and “Postal transfer,” are more common than “Deliver by hand.” Among those who make a donation only to “Category 2” which contains religious, neighborhood council & association activities, etc., “Deliver by hand (neighborhood council & association)” is the majority of means (Fig. 1-11).

Fig.1-11 Means of donation by category

In terms of donors by age, 70% of donors aged 65 and above make a donation of “Delivery by hand (neighborhood council & association activities).” There is a 20% difference approximately compared with donors aged between 20 and 64 years old (Fig. 1-12).

Fig.1-12 Means of donation (Category by two age groups)

In terms of donors by the amount of donation, more or less 30% of donors who make a donation of ¥50,000 or more use “Bank transfer,” “Postal transfer,” or “Credit card settlement,” and around 20% with donors who make a donation of the amount between ¥5,000 and ¥50,000 (Fig.1-13).

Fig.1-13 Means of donation (by amount of donation)

With the means of donation being diversified, we have asked if they have an intention to use new means of donation. 27.2% of donors and 14.3% of non-donors responded that they had an intention to use hometown tax donation. (This is a system that if one makes a donation to home prefecture or municipal government, the full amount of the portion that exceeds ¥2,000 in the donation will be deducted to the certain extent in principle from income tax and individual resident tax.)

Moreover, about 20% of donors and about 10% of non-donors responded that they had an intention to use a means of giving away their reward points as a donation or of purchasing products with donation.

In addition, they showed a high level of intention to use a means of “Mottainai (a sense of not letting things go to waste)” – a donation system of things that are sitting at home such as unsent postcards and stamps that could be refunded or books and clothing or the like. “Donation through Twitter” marks high with their 20’s (Fig. 1-14).

Fig.1-14 Intention of future means of donation (top ten-listing)

---

---