Thoughts On Improving The Incentives To Give

Most people in the sector are aware (or perhaps petrified) of the Parliamentary committee investigating charitable donation incentives. The committee invited submissions on charitable donation incentives, and several worthwhile submissions were made (available on the Parliamentary website). We too have made a submission (available here) and the author has been invited to appear in front of the Parliamentary committee to discuss our comments. Given the importance of the committee's inquiry generally, we are taking the time to provide this précis of our thoughts.

Understanding the System

Any donation incentive program must have two key elements; understanding and trust. Understanding is fundamental to any incentive, and complexity is itself a disincentive. The less people understand about the benefits they will receive from a particular type of behavior the less likely the reward is to motivate their behaviour.