2023 Positive Money Supporter Survey Results

April 28, 2023

Back in February, we sent out our annual supporter survey. This survey is a great way for our movement to come together and take a step back to reflect on all the fantastic campaigns we ran last year and share bold and creative plans for our work in 2023. 

As a people-powered movement, Positive Money relies on our wonderful supporters to help drive forward our mission to reform money and banking to build a fair, democratic and sustainable economy, so firstly we want to say a big thank you to the more than 1,200 people who took part! 

For a deep dive into the results click on the image below to read our full report, or scroll below for an overview of the findings.

Read the 2023 Positive Money Supporter Survey Results here

We kicked off the survey by asking which campaign issues you were most interested in (Picking up to 2)

The top three issues were: Clamping down on the power of bank(er)s over our politics (18.4%), Green finance: shifting money away from fossil fuels and towards the green transition (22.7%) and Housing: Pushing for homes to be places to live rather than financial assets (18%).

We’ve already made a head start bringing attention to these issues, in February we launched a petition calling on the Chancellor, Jeremy Hunt to support a windfall tax on excess bank profits to fund the NHS and public infrastructure. And we recently released two videos exposing the impact Fossilflation and Climateflation has on rising costs. Our Fossilflation video has been watched over 90,000 times on Twitter!

We’re excited to be doing more work exposing the systematic underpinnings of the housing crisis, we’re publishing a housing briefing breaking down the impact the housing crisis has on various ethnic groups and will be doing more work with housing campaigners to draw stronger links between the banks and our broken housing system.

Then we asked respondents to finish this sentence: “A fairer, greener and more democratic economic system would…” (look like / include / achieve). A few highlights were:

“make for a happier and more just world all round.”

“a regulated banking system that works for the general public and not just for the corporate bankers and their shareholders.”

“A system which is accessible for ALL, not just the rich multi-billionaires, multi-millionaires and millionaires and corrupt MPs and Tax evaders.

“A system which does not ALLOW tax evasion by the wealthy and corrupt!”

“A world in which a trans woman of colour who suffers mental illness is protected by law, provided with the free care that she needs and is not a victim of structural injustice.”

In 2022, Positive Money partnered with Cheshire East local council to run our first participatory democracy process, empowering a diverse group of citizens to discuss and shape their local economy, to better understand the wider economic system. So in this year’s survey we asked whether people thought Positive Money should support more of these types of participatory democracy projects – and the answer was an overwhelming Yes!

In 2022, Positive Money partnered with Cheshire East local council to run our first participatory democracy process; empowering a diverse group of citizens to discuss and shape their local economy, to better understand the wider economic system. So in this year’s survey we asked if people thought Positive Money should support more of these types of participatory democracy projects – and the answer was an overwhelming Yes!

Find out more about this project by watching a video with the highlights of our People’s Panel on YouTube here.

We also asked supporters to indicate their knowledge about our local group network. A significant proportion of the groups have been on hiatus post-coronavirus pandemic but a handful still meet in person and online. So it’s not surprising that 41% of supporters haven’t heard of our local groups, but many are still going strong – you can find your nearest local group here.

We also captured some useful findings on people’s views of the organisation by asking supporters to describe Positive Money in a single sentence:

“A common sense campaign about stopping unelected bankers running wild and free with our economy. 2008 taught us nothing, it seems.”

“A force for good, the lily in a murky pool.”

“A vital and dynamic organisation committed to exposing the truth about the banking system and government policy capture[d] by the elite, and advocating for policy alternatives that put people and the environment first.”

“David fighting several Multi-National Goliath[s].”

At Positive Money, we’re committed to building a diverse, equitable and inclusive movement. To track how we’re progressing with that commitment and to get an idea of who we’re reaching with our messages, we also ask a number of demographic questions.  Here’s a summary of the people who make up our movement:

Our age cohort is highest amongst 51-65 (30%) and 66-75 (39.1%), similar results to 2022 where the results were more evenly distributed (33.6%) for the former and 34.8% for the latter age range. 

Men are overrepresented in our supporter base (nearly 59%). The proportion of Women slightly dropped this year, but we’re quickly progressing towards a more equal gender balance which is hopeful! We have seen a significant increase in the proportion of women since 2020, by around 5%. Check out our results from 2020 here.

The respondents to our survey were overwhelmingly White (92.3%). The number of people selecting, ‘Asian/British’, ‘Black African’ or ‘other ethnic group’ has slightly increased. Our largest groups of supporters reside in the South East (16.2%) and South West (13.4%) of England respectively. A larger proportion of supporters reside outside of London. We also have a small following based outside of the UK (7%) which has stayed the same since our report from last year.

Our largest groups of supporters reside in the South East (16.2%) and South West (13.4%) of England respectively. A larger proportion of supporters reside outside of London. We also have a small following based outside of the UK (7%) which has stayed the same since our report from last year.

Last year a significant proportion of supporters selected Scotland which has decreased from 17% to 7.7%. 

We’re extremely grateful to have kind, compassionate people within our movement dedicated to our vision for a greener, fairer money and banking system. If you haven’t already, please subscribe to our mailing list to keep up to date with our latest campaigns. If you didn’t get round to completing the survey this year you can keep an eye out for the next one in 2024!