Charitable giving is a deeply personal thing, often defined by experiences of disability or illness among one's nearest and dearest. Alternatively, it is fuelled by a deep attachment to cats/dogs/donkeys/hedgehogs (insert name of relevant creature here).

There's no doubt that some charities resonate more deeply with donors than others. According to the latest survey on charitable giving by the Charities Aid Foundation and National Council for Voluntary Organisations, the top three causes receiving the most support are medical research (20%), hospitals and hospices (15%), and children and young people (14%). And while a massive £9.9bn was donated by people in the UK in 2008/09, the recession has undoubtedly had an impact on giving because that figure was 11% down on the previous year.

I have no doubt that this is a generous industry, as has been pointed out on the PrintWeek forum, often providing charities with free or subsidised printing. Look too, to the amount of money for charity generated by the annual St George's Day lunch, which has raised an enormous sum - in excess of £250,000 - from the print, paper and publishing communities over the past 13 years or so.

But I was also struck by the fact that the £7,500 raised for The Printing Charity through a fundraising prize draw at last year's PrintWeek Awards eclipsed the entire amount it received through donations in 2009.

At its re-launch event earlier this week, chairman of the trustees Paul Rudd spoke movingly about feeling fortunate to be among the people this industry has provided with a good quality of life, saying "I feel a duty of care to those less fortunate than me."

I think it's fair to say that occupational charities (and we have the second oldest in the country), are not right up there at the forefront of awareness, and probably come some way below dogs and donkeys in the pecking order. Perhaps this recession, and the attendant company failures and many thousands of redundancies, will result in a fresh appreciation of the work of The Printing Charity in providing a vital safety net for those in need.

Hopefully this will also increase the number of people and companies that will considering supporting it next time some charitable activity is afoot.