How do you measure and compare philanthropy in different countries, given their different economies, GDP’s, cultures and attitudes to charitable giving? London-based international management consultancy The Management Centre is attempting to do this by pegging some standard donation values against the local price of a Big Mac® in each country’s currency.

In creating The Big Mac® Philanthropy Index, The Management Centre is emulating The Economist magazine’s Big Mac® index. By comparing wages and prices to the price of a Big Mac, the Index lets you more easily compare the relative price of a car, the wages of a dentist, or how many hours someone has to work to be able to earn enough to buy a Big Mac.

The Economist has been publishing its index for over a decade, and, says The Management Centre, it has been used by international organisations to calculate the per diem for employees travelling to a foreign country.

There are other international philanthropy comparisons, including CAF’s The World Giving Index and Johns Hopkins University’s Comparative Nonprofit Sector Project.

What does the Big Mac® Philanthropy Index measure?

Applied to philanthropy, The Management Centre’s index focuses on a number of standard measurements of giving:

• The average monthly gift of a regular donor to a ‘major’ charity – a national cancer agency or the Red Cross/Crescent or UNICEF
• The price point at which a supporter becomes a major donor among national ‘top 10’ charities
• The size of the largest capital campaign run in the last three years

To see the headline results click the image above (image loads slowly).