World Giving Index

[lovelaos]

Thailand is now ranked 9th place from 25th last year.

https://www.cafonlin...2011_191211.pdf

https://www.cafonline.org/publications/2011-publications/world-giving-index-2011.aspx

Reason for edit: link added

Edited December 20, 2011 by lovelaos

[aridion]

Always knew the Irish were a generous lot. Even though they have gone through a wide scale economic crash.

[roamer]

Not surprising, but the results are misleading. Thailand ranks highly in term of giving money, much lower down the scale in terms of volunteering time. I very much believe that if you were to take out temple donations from the equation you would get a very different picture.

[xthAi76s]

Unfortunately without the methodology which is completely lacking in this report, we have no idea 1) if we can feel reasonably confident that the numbers are reasonably accurate and 2) what the numbers mean anyway.

Methodology, data gathering -

How do they go about gathering this info? For example, is it self-reported? What tools are in place to ensure accuracy of the numbers? My guess is that most of the information is self-reported with no checks at all.

Intentions -

The Thai government has for years now publicly stated that it has had a goal to transform itself from one that receives aid to become one that gives aid. This could be a realization of this goal, in which case I applaud Thailand, or it could be the country's manipulation of numbers -- as it rather blatantly does with so many other things.

Where -

Where are the Thais donating money? If charities, are they donating to charities/causes outside of Thailand that affect countries other than Thailand? What percentage of their giving is non-Thai? I think knowing this would be very revealing.

Who -

Who is donating? What is the demographic breakdown of the givers? For example, would we expect to see the vast majority of the giving the Thai-Chinese ultra-wealthy class of Thais? Would we see large corporations with CSR/image drives donating a lot of money while paying their armies of Thais workers poor wages as so many do? Having the demographic breakdown will perhaps be most telling.

So, without a more seriously conducted report and without knowing details, these numbers are almost meaningless. It's essentially propaganda or sales material for the CAF; nothing more.

EDIT:

Not trying to dampen any Thai achievement, as we all know they've made real progress, but I do need to attack the report which is just not very academic.

Edited December 21, 2011 by ThailandMan

[KNJ]

My FIL was for years involved with donations and aid through japan overseas development. Although now retired it recently worked part time in assiting the Thai government to now become a donor rather than a receiver of aid ( at least in part )

They are making real progress

[Mirth]

The report is based on an organisation called CAF. I don't think you can take something internal as actual world. Not only is it misleading, the whole thing sounds like an advert Am not from China or Japan but when it comes to donations, when one don't see countries like China and Japan as the top 10 then something is wrong.

Thailand is now ranked 9th place from 25th last year.

https://www.cafonlin...2011_191211.pdf

https://www.cafonline.org/publications/2011-publications/world-giving-index-2011.aspx

Reason for edit: link added

[NewlyMintedThai]

Not surprising, but the results are misleading. Thailand ranks highly in term of giving money, much lower down the scale in terms of volunteering time. I very much believe that if you were to take out temple donations from the equation you would get a very different picture.

If you take out temple donations, are you going to take out church, synagogue, and mosque donations from other countries, too?