Growing 'Giving Gap' a Concern to Canada's Charitable Sector

CanadaHelps' 2nd annual 'The Giving Report' examines how a nationwide decline in giving may lead to an impending funding crisis for Canadian charities   

TORONTO, Nov. 1, 2018 /CNW/ - CanadaHelps, the country's largest platform for donating and fundraising online, today released the 2^nd annual edition of The Giving Report, providing a renewed, in-depth look at the state of Canada's charitable sector.

"We developed The Giving Report to help Canadians understand how the health of our charitable sector is firmly tied to the health of our country," said Marina Glogovac, President and CEO, CanadaHelps. "After last year's report discovered a decline in charitable giving over the past decade, we dug deeper into the data to examine where these 'giving gaps' are growing, and how demographic shifts are creating an impending funding crisis for Canadian charities."   

This year's report would not have been possible without the support of Imagine Canada. Imagine's team has heavily assisted in the important steps of identification, cleansing and verification of all data used to create this report. Exploring Statistics Canada research and tax data from the Canadian Revenue Agency along with proprietary CanadaHelps data, The Giving Report reveals new trends and insights around charitable giving in Canada, including:

• Giving down across all age groups - One-quarter (24.6%) of all Canadians donated to charity in 2006. By 2015, that number has eroded to just 20.4%, or one-fifth of the country. Over the same time period, the average annual donation per Canadian also decreased from $368 to $346.
  
  
• Canada's disappearing donors - Canadians aged 55+ collectively donated $6.4 billion to charity in 2015, almost double the $3.5 billion given by Canadians aged 25-54. This giving model is unsustainable for the sector, as donors aged 55+ will need to be replaced. Between 2006 and 2015, Canadians aged 45-54 experienced the largest decline in giving of all age groups at -6.4%. As these Canadians move into the age 55+ bracket, the gap will grow significantly. This demographic shift creates a widening 'giving gap'.
  
  
• Charitable sector is a job creator - Canada's charitable sector now accounts for 10% of the full-time Canadian work force, having grown at twice the rate of all other sectors between 2010 and 2016. Further demonstrating how critical the charitable sector is to our economy, Canadian charities reported $262 billion in revenue in 2015 - more than 8% of our national GDP. This is driven by growing needs for charitable services such as food banks, homeless shelters, animal rescues, and more.
  
  
• Smaller charities miss out on funding – One in four (24.9%) charities are in the 'Social Services,' and 'Environment' categories. They receive only 9.5% of government funding. 'Health' and 'Education' each make up 7.4% respectively, of the 86,000 Canadian charities, but receive the lion's share (87.1%) of all available government funding.

For added context into the data and to learn more about the state of charitable giving in Canada, you can read The Giving Report in its entirety at: www.CanadaHelps.org/en/The-Giving-Report. 

As a charitable social enterprise and a leader and innovator in the charitable sector, CanadaHelps aims to build capacity of charities of all sizes through its education and online fundraising platform while connecting Canadians to charities and causes they care about. For over 18 years, CanadaHelps has been the trusted charity, informing, inspiring and connecting donors and charities and the causes they care about.

"There is no sector in Canada that so significantly impacts the lives of so many Canadians every day," adds Glogovac. "and the vitality of this sector is key to a vibrant and sustainable future for generations of Canadians." 

About CanadaHelps.org
CanadaHelps.org allows donors to quickly and safely donate and fundraise online for any registered Canadian charity and provides charities the secure online fundraising platform they need to succeed. Since 2000, CanadaHelps has facilitated over $970 million in online donations to Canadian charities. Over 1.8 million Canadians have donated to over 18,000 Canadian charities using our online tools. CanadaHelps exists to inform, inspire and connect donors and charities, democratizing access to effective technology and education in the charitable sector.  www.canadahelps.org 

SOURCE CanadaHelps.org

For media inquiries, please contact: Madison Francis, FleishmanHillard HighRoad, 416-644-2276, [email protected]; Cherie Cohen, CanadaHelps, 416-628-6948 x2506, [email protected]