Over the last few months we’ve been delighted to have the opportunity to work with Veterans Housing Scotland. Established in Edinburgh over 100 years ago Veterans Housing Scotland is a registered charity which provides homes for veterans who are disabled - their main aim is to provide safe and secure homes for veterans within a supportive community.

Veterans Housing Scotland commissioned us to provide then with population insights to help them to achieve their ambitions to raise awareness of the important work they do and to identify how they can increase support, a particular challenge given the economic uncertainties we are facing.

To obtain these insights we surveyed a representative sample of just over a 1,000 Scottish adults in early September 2022, asking a wide range of questions covering general attitudes towards homelessness and veterans, current and planned levels of charitable giving and awareness of and interest in supporting veterans charities with a focus on opportunities for Veterans Housing Scotland.

All charities are facing cost of living challenges…

We found that the vast majority of adults living in Scotland had given to charity at least once in the last year (78%). Indeed a core of just over a third of Scots (35%), typically gave to charity every month and the average amount donated per person per year was £88 (and somewhat more amongst certain population groups including families and members of the most affluent social grades).

However, with rising costs of living, charities face a significant challenge. As shown below we found that with increasing living costs, half of Scots expected that the total amount they would donate to charities in the next 12 months would be less than in the last year. In contrast just 10% expected the amount they would give to increase. Worryingly, some of the groups who had previously given to charity most often are the most likely to expect to reduce their donations – this includes people in the more affluent socio-economic groups, people who are working full time and people with children in their household.

Addressing homelessness remains a high priority…

More positively, we found that tackling homelessness remains high on the list of priorities for most Scots. Asked to rank a range of issues in order of importance, homelessness was ranked third most important on average (with mental health and tackling poverty ranked as 1st and 2nd) and when considering the types of charity they were most inclined to support in 12 months those organisations which help the homeless were ranked amongst the most important.

To understand the factors driving these high levels of concern, we explored attitudes towards homelessness in more detail. We found that over four in five Scots (83%) agreed with the statement ‘taking steps as a society to reduce homelessness is in everyone’s interests’ while 85% agreed that ‘people are often pushed into homelessness by circumstances beyond their control.’

Furthermore, around 1 in 3 Scots have had personal experiences or are close to others with personal experiences of homelessness.

How to increase support for Veterans Housing Scotland at a challenging time for everyone?

Our research explored awareness and views towards homelessness amongst veterans in detail. More than half of the population (57%) were aware that historically homelessness has been a particular issue amongst military veterans and the vast majority rated this as issue which is very important to address (73% provided a rating of 7+ on a scale from 0 to 10).

In the context of these high levels of concern, our research tested a range of ways in which Scots could support Veterans Housing Scotland, including donations or volunteering time or skills. This analysis has allowed us to identify the groups most open to supporting their charity and by gaining feedback on alternative brand and communications options we have been able to provide recommendations on the marketing approaches likely to be most effective.

Find out more

If you’d like to find out more about the work undertaken by Veterans Housing Scotland and how you can support their aims, please visit their website www.vhscot.org.uk

Also please get in touch with the team at 56 Degree Insight if you’d like to hear more about our work in the charitable sector or how we can help your organisation using the approaches we’ve followed in this study.