Movember was the most talked-about charity in 2013, according to the annual Third Sector Charity Brand Index.
Work for the report, based on a survey of 3,069 people about their awareness of charities, was carried out in association with the market research company Harris Interactive and the results have been published in full today.
According to the report, 30 per cent of respondents said they had talked about the moustache-growing fundraising campaign in the previous six months. The charity also entered the index for the first time this year, at number 58.
The next most talked-about charity brands were Macmillan Cancer Support – which was named best brand in 2013 – Help for Heroes and Combat Stress. All were talked about by 29 per cent of respondents in the past six months.
Martin Bradley, senior research executive at Harris Interactive, said: "Creating buzz around your charity and getting people to talk about it is a hard thing to do. The most talked-about charity in 2013 is Movember, followed by Macmillan Cancer Support. It is no coincidence that these are two of the major success stories from this year’s Charity Brand Index."
Respondents to the survey were asked for their impressions of the charities they knew about, how much they knew about them, how much they trusted them, how distinctive they felt they were, how relevant their causes were perceived to be and how likely they were to donate to them.
Researchers carried out a separate omnibus survey of 2,056 people about their giving habits and the way they support charities.
The respondents were asked how they would split the money if they had £100 to donate. Medical research was the cause area people said they would donate the most to (£18.40), with children’s charities next (£16.50). The amount they said they would choose to donate to children’s charities rose from £14.10 in 2012. Respondents said they would give the least to culture and heritage (£2.60) and human rights (£2.80).
Young people aged between 16 and 24 were the least likely to donate to charity – 28 per cent said they never gave, compared with 17 per cent across all age groups. Most people (54 per cent) said they gave spontaneously, with 15 per cent donating through standing orders and sometimes spontaneously.
However, young people were the most trusting of charities, based on how much they thought went to a cause when they donated to charity. Thirty-two per cent of young people felt that the full £1 of their donation was spent on the cause, compared with 19 per cent of all age groups. The highest percentage of people overall (25 per cent) said they thought charities gave between 40p and 59p to the cause.