HR managers looking to engage local staff might profit from volunteering initiatives, as Malaysians prove their mettle in being generous and helping others.

The nation ranked 10th in the world in the CAF World Giving Index, beating countries such as Singapore and Hong Kong.

The CAF World Giving Index is scored by averaging the percentage of people in each country who donated money, volunteered or helped a stranger in the previous month.

For this year’s report 145 countries were surveyed, representing around 96% of the world’s population.

While Malaysia ranked 10th overall, it secured 27th place when it came to helping strangers and 17th in donating money and time.

Myanmar was titled as the world’s most generous county, followed by United States and New Zealand.

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“This year there are encouraging signs that, despite continuing economic uncertainty, people are more willing to donate money. Young people especially are participating more in all three kinds of giving than any other age group,” the report stated.

Indeed, the report found almost a third (31.5%) gave money to a charity in the month prior to interview – a rise of 3.2 percentage points since 2013

Despite an increase in average global participation levels for donating money and helping a stranger, the actual number of people taking part in all three ways of giving has fallen.

This was due to a number of large countries, most notably India and China, where decreased participation translated to tens of millions fewer people giving

“Against a backdrop of continuing global economic uncertainty, it is particularly heartening that the willingness of people to donate money has increased this year,” said John Low, chief executive  of Charities Aid Foundation (CAF).

The world’s most generous countries:

1. Myanmar
2. United States
3. New Zealand
4. Canada
5. Australia
6. United Kingdom
7. Netherlands
8. Sri Lanka
9. Ireland
10. Malaysia

Image: Shutterstock