Canadians aren’t as generous as they used to be

Generation by generation, Canadians appear to be falling out of the habit of donating to charity. More than a quarter (27%) of young adults aged 18 to 35 have not given to charity over the past five years, a new survey from fundraising platform CanadaHelps indicates. Meanwhile, people over 65 contributed half of all donation dollars in 2023.

The research, released to highlight Giving Tuesday on December 2, also suggests a growing divide by income. Canadians earning $150,000 a year or more account for 49% of all donations, but ever larger segments of the population aren’t giving at all. Over the past 12 months, 31% reported not making any donations to charity. Two-thirds of respondents cited affordability as a reason they are not giving.

“This year, we’re talking directly to the millions of Canadians who haven’t donated in a while—or maybe have never donated at all—and reminding them that their first gift can make a real difference,” CanadaHelps president and CEO Duke Chang said in a release. “Whether it’s $5 or $50, every donation starts something meaningful.”

Initiated 12 years ago, Giving Tuesday is a date—the Tuesday following American Thanksgiving—marked by charities worldwide to urge giving back. CanadaHelps works with 86,000 registered charities in Canada to streamline the process of giving.

The results of the organization’s research are consistent with Statistics Canada’s 2023 Survey of Giving, Volunteering and Participating, released last June, which showed the number of Canadians donating in sharp decline over the past decade. The percentage of Canadians reporting charitable giving declined to 54% from 82% over the period. In absolute terms, the number of givers in Canada has declined by 6.3 million.

The dollars donated declined more gradually, from $16.4 billion in 2013 to $13.4 billion in 2023, adjusted for inflation, suggesting a smaller group of donors is digging deeper to give.

And you can’t just blame the economy or affordability for the shift. Fewer Canadians are volunteering for charities—32% of the population in 2023, compared to 44% in 2013. The number of volunteer hours committed decreased to 1.2 billion from 2 billion a decade earlier. The decline in volunteering was particularly marked during the COVID-19 pandemic, especially among women, but it has not shown a significant recovery since.

A study by the Fraser Institute released a year ago showed the share of Canadian tax filers reporting charitable donations fell to 17.1% in 2022, down from 25.1% in 2002. Likewise, the share of all personal income donated fell to half of one percent from 0.61% 20 years earlier. Unfortunately, the need to respond to issues such as food insecurity has grown as giving has dwindled.
Recent experience has shown Canadians to still be generous when it comes to giving in response to particular crises, such as forest fires and flood relief, but habitual giving appears to be in a long-term decline.

Read more about charity:

• Money-saving gifts that keep on giving: MoneySense’s 2025 holiday guide
• What are the tax benefits of donating to charity?
• Financial gifts: What you need to know before giving money or investments
• The best charities in Canada for 2024: Where to donate to make an impact
  

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