Management consultants top charity giving list

Management consultants donít always get good pressÖbut when it comes to supporting charities they are among the most generous professionals in the country.

Research by people4charity.com, which matches freelance workers to registered charities, reveals that management consultants top the league in the number offering discounts on their services to the third sector, closely followed by IT and Internet professionals.

The study shows that 14 percent of management consultants were prepared to work at an average discounted rate of almost 15 percent for the charity sector, closely followed by 13 percent of IT specialists (at 13 percent discount) and 12 percent of media experts (at 15 percent discount).

The biggest discounts to charities were offered by legal professionals - an average of 22 percent ñ but only 6 percent were prepared to work at preferential rates. Just 3 percent of finance professionals offer discounts to charities ñ at an average 10 percent reduction.

ìThis is an interesting snapshot of which freelance professions are the most ëgivingí in Britain,î says Duncan Taylor of people4charity.com. ìNot many people would have put management consultants at the top of their ëgivingí list Öbut at the same time there might be less surprise about the more cautious approach taken by financial experts.

ìThe feedback from charities is that they really appreciate access to preferential rates offered by some of the most highly rated specialists in the country. At the same time, the freelancers clearly value the opportunity to support the third sector through their skills.î

The people4charity.com research involved around 7,000 freelance professionals across 10 industry sectors. The company has launched a completely new concept in charitable giving by enabling a web-based community of freelance workers to offer their professional skills to charities at reduced rates.