The Maltese donated less money to charity and political parties over the festive season, and the political crisis may have been partly responsible. 

Despite donations totalling a staggering €8.5 million, that’s €1.5 million down on the previous year.

Two major fundraising events by the Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation and id-Dar tal-Providenza collected €7.58 million. The two main political parties, which organised their usual fundraising events in the run-up to Christmas, collected €922,600 altogether.

Only id-Dar tal-Providenza, a home for people with physical and mental disabilities, managed to increase its donations from last year. All others registered decreases.

The biggest show of generosity remained L-Istrina, organised by the Malta Community Chest Fund Foundation, which alone collected €6.21 million. However, that was a reduction of €921,000 from last year’s sum which surpassed the €7.1 million mark.

Only id-Dar tal-Providenza increased its donations

Sources suggested one reason for the drop could have been a social media whispering campaign to snub the annual fundraising event organised by President George Vella who, according to those promoting the boycott, had not taken action to remove Prime Minister Joseph Muscat from his post.

Less than a week after L-Istrina, the New Year kicked off with a record-breaking collection for id-Dar tal-Providenza. Some €1,365,556 was collected this time round, an increase of just over €90,000 over last year’s collection.

Fr Martin Micallef, Director of id-Dar tal-Providenza said that this year’s edition had once again shown the solidarity with and generosity of the Maltese people towards the home. He said the funds collected will enable the home to continue to provide a better quality of life for its residents.

Funds collected by both political parties were substantially down this year. The Nationalist Party reduced its intake from people’s donations to €405,709, down from the €670,632 it collected in 2018.

The Labour Party also collected significantly less than it had done in 2018.

During the December 13 fundraising marathon the party was at the centre of political turmoil in the wake of the investigation into the murder of journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, which led to the resignations of ex-tourism minister Konrad Mizzi, ex-chief of staff Keith Schembri and an announcement from the prime minister that he will also leave office.

This time the party collected €516,900 which was €286,278 less than the €803,174 collected in 2018.

Sources close to both parties pinned this decrease down to “political fatigue” whereby people preferred giving money to charities which help the sick and the needy rather than political parties who spend their money on driving political messages. 

Donations

Amended January 4, 2020 - A previous version of this article switched the 2018 collection figures for both PL and PN in the article text.