The determinants of charitable giving in Belgium

Charitable giving is a research topic that has largely been addressed in the U.S.-context. However, there exist only very few studies on Belgian donating behavior. This paper aims to fill this gap using a combination of fiscal, demographic and political data. OLS regressions and Fixed effects regressions are performed and show a positive effect of age and income on the probability to donate. In addition, age and income increase the average donation amount, whereas gender and declaring jointly tend to decrease it. Further, the region and the political party to which belongs the mayor of the municipality in which one lives also affect the likelihood of charitable giving and the donated amount. This paper has implications both for researchers and charity practitioners. The latter are likely to pay attention to the factors that increase the probability to donate and the average donated amount, especially in times of economic crises as charities may rely less and less on the state to cover their financial resource needs.