‘It is not what you give that matters but what matters is that you give’: The One Percent Difference campaign in Ireland

Abstract

This commentary concerns itself with ‘The One Percent Difference’ campaign that was recently launched in Dublin, Ireland. The purpose of this media campaign is to increase, by one percent, the amount of time and/or money that Irish people give to charitable organisations. While the author is not against the principle of raising awareness around volunteering and increasing charitable giving in Irish society, an ideological analysis of this campaign reveals the prevalence of a number of noted neo-liberal assumptions which in their sum, promote an individualistic and depoliticised construction of volunteering. Furthermore, by placing its focus on the actions of private citizens the campaign fails to acknowledge how the austerity measures adopted by the Irish state have effectively crippled the Irish voluntary and community sector.