Shoppers Buy Gifts to Help Charities

This holiday season, nearly two-thirds of Americans will buy products from businesses that channel a share of the purchase price to charity, a new survey has found. That’s up from two years ago when only 5 out of 10 Americans said they would buy such products.

The poll, sponsored by Cone, a marketing company in Boston, consisted of telephone interviews with more than 1,000 people. It is the company’s third annual survey of the buying and charity habits of Americans during the end-of-the-year holiday season.

As in previous years, the survey found that Americans are much more likely to donate food, clothing, or other goods to charity than they are to do any other philanthropic act. Eight out of 10 people said they planned to make such a donation to charity, while 5 out of 10 said they would give cash, and 4 out of 10 said they would volunteer their time.

The proportion of people who plan to buy gifts from retailers that are associated with a charitable cause has grown over the last couple of years. In 1997, 54 per cent of the survey’s respondents said they would shop at stores that they knew had a policy of making charitable contributions. This year, 63 per cent said they would do so.

For a free copy of the survey, “1999 Cone Holiday Trend Tracker,” contact Anne Chan at Cone, 90 Canal Street, Boston 02114; (617) 227-2111; achan@coneinc.com.