I am an unabashed global giving nerd – it’s why I founded Emerging Gifts after all. So I look forward to Charities Aid Foundation’s (CAF) World Giving Index every year, with its numbers taken from Gallup’s World Poll of 142 countries, representing more than 95% of the world’s population.
The 2024 edition saw not only saw the continuation of Indonesia’s now-seven year reign as the most generous nation in the world (topping the Index in both donating money and volunteering time) but the top 5 countries are all in Africa and Asia, with Kenya, Singapore, The Gambia and Nigeria all joining Indonesia at the top of the index.
With four of the top ten countries in donating money located in the Global South – five if you include Singapore, which I personally would – I became curious about the Index’s donation numbers over the years and if they could tell me if I’m crazy for focusing on the Global South in my efforts.
I originally downloaded the last ten World Giving Indexes but upon learning that the 2019 version was a ten year aggregate in honor of its anniversary (and CAF didn’t have 2019 numbers), I decided to use those 2010-2019 aggregates as a baseline for pre-COVID giving and current growth in my analysis. Once I broke down the countries and their numbers, some interesting trends started to emerge.
The Global South is behind an 11% rise in giving globally: The number of people reporting to have donated within the past year has risen 55% in the Global South since 2019, compared to just 11% in the Global North. Anchoring that jump is an astounding 272% donation surge in Europe’s Global South (aka Ukraine) along with a substantial rise in Sub-Saharan Africa (38%). Conversely, incredible rises in Russia (250%), Greece (114%), and Estonia (105%) were counterbalanced by twelve European countries posting negative growth.
Africa, MENA + the Ukrainian War: Similarly, when breaking down the numbers regionally, the 11% increase in people around the world giving within the past year since 2010-2019 is largely attributed to gains across Africa, Western Asia, and the Ukrainian War. The 40% increase in generosity seen in sub-Saharan Africa is spread across the region with impressive gains in Eastern (43%), Middle (58%), and Western (62%) Africa. Northern Africa also saw an 18% increase, which combined with Western Asia’s 33%, led to a 28% average rise across the MENA region.
Considering that Europe’s average increase of 24% is largely attributed to Ukraine and Russia along with Estonia (105%), Czechia (91%) and Hungary (90%) – plus a 95% increase in Asia’s Kazakhstan – it’ll be interesting to see the impacts of the war in Gaza and its escalation across the region in future Indexes (in an admittedly morbid way) considering the 60% growth in Palestinian giving already seen in this analysis.
Positive trends across Asia and Africa: While Europe dominates the top of the 2024 Index in terms of donors reported to have given – although Indonesia is first with a whopping 90% giving rate – the majority of the growth is happening in Asia and Africa. The highest growth rates are primarily spread across the two continents plus six of the top ten biggest growers.
Dialing in a bit, Asia and the Pacific consistently ranks third amongst the continents in terms of percentage of donors but growth in the region is mostly coming from its Global South. Mongolia (33%) is covering Japan’s dramatic drop in reported donors (-26%), allowing China’s 182% increase to lead the region’s overall growth of 7%. Oceania’s Australia and New Zealand have the highest giving rates in the region (59%) but those rates have decreased 12% since 2010-2019. Instead, countries like Singapore (42%) and Indonesia (30%) in South East Asia and Palestine (60%) and Saudi Arabia (54%) in the West are leading the region’s growth and otherwise staving off negative numbers in fourteen countries.
Shifting further west, five of the top ten countries in terms of growth are in Sub-Saharan Africa: China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Madagascar, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, and Senegal. While there were a handful of declines in countries such as Tunisia (-30%), Egypt (-38%), and Botswana (-50%), the vast majority showed growth of at least 30% in the 2024 Index from the 2019 edition. In addition to the five mentioned above, other high risers including Niger (89%), Chad and Guinea (81%) along with 30%+ giving rates in newer Index entries like Libya and Tanzania are adding to a positive outlook for the continent overall.
Venezuela (!) leads the Western Hemisphere: As pleasantly surprised as I was by the strength of growth across Africa and Asia, I was just as shocked by the declines in Latin America and the Caribbean. The 3% decline across the region is anchored by negative numbers in nine countries and single digits in another three. But not all is lost: all things considered, the 46% increase seen in Venezuela since 2010-2019 (the highest in the Western Hemisphere) is incredibly impressive. Peru (39%), Brazil (32%), and Argentina (22%) also showed strong growth during this time frame and with promising trends in Jamaica, I’m sure the region will bounce back.
Shout out to Greece: While not a focus of my work, the 114% rebound in Greek giving since the financial crisis is an inspiring story gleaned from the data.
Growth in context: CAF noted in their 2024 report that Morocco’s devastating earthquake led to an 800% year-over-year increase in giving. However, that jump to 18% is negated by the fact that their 2010-2019 average was also 18% – their donating population had decreased 89% to only 2%. This is important to note because the surprising growth seen in some of the countries must be viewed in context with their reported giving rates: China’s 182% and the DRC’s 164% growth are due to their both only having an average of 11% in 2010-2019. The previously mentioned 114% rebound in Greece during this analysis period should probably be noted in the same breath as its 2024 donor rate of 15%. Conversely, the -5% decline in Canada is concerning until one notes its 60% rate in 2024’s Index.
In short, growth is impressive.…but less impressive when applied to anemic numbers. Similarly, declines in giving percentages shouldn’t necessarily lead to concern. When zoomed out, the majority of countries with high percentages of people giving have seen declines since 2010-2019 – including five of 2024’s top ten – but I certainly wouldn’t recommend leaders reconsider investing in countries with 50%+ giving rates, even if there’s some softening in their markets.
But nor would I recommend solely investing in the more developed economies who may have hit their ceiling, spending precious funds clawing for potentially dwindling market shares when this data shows that there are potentially more receptive audiences elsewhere.
Instead, I’m taking huge inspiration from this nerdy endeavor of mine showing the spirit of giving is strong and growing the Global South (plus the really strong initial numbers of newer entries like The Gambia, Bahrain and Kuwait). There has been incredible growth happening in the giving sector across the Global South over the past few years. It’ll be interesting to see how things continue to develop.
