Give to charity - lose your friends?

Do you ever make a donation to a charity instead of buying a gift? I often do the charity option instead of buying greetings cards, which I would then forget to post anyway!

Charity Matters, an electronic publication, says that a donation to charity in place of a gift may be around a quarter less acceptable than some donors think. A study at the University of Southern California asked 151 people to either make a £25 donation to charity on behalf of a friend or give them a gourmet coffee hamper to the same value. The givers and receivers were then asked to rate the gift in terms of overall appreciation, offensiveness, commitment to the friendship and thoughtfulness.

The recipients in the study were up to 27% less appreciative of the charity donations than the givers expected, and their expectation of thoughtfulness at 74% was much higher than the actual figure of 48% recorded.

The study concluded that the virtuous identity bought by the giver by the charity donation was only really of value to the giver and not the receiver.

However, those with a slightly more cynical outlook might think that since this study was conducted in the USA, a country with a more capitalist outlook than most, its findings may not apply directly to the UK. How many people do you know in the UK who would rather your gift went to a good cause than to buy some cheap tat that you would have to discreetly dispose of later?