It’s Giving Tuesday, the day of the year when charities across Canada ramp up their appeals for support.
The stakes are high for charities. Many receive as much as 45 per cent of their total annual donations at the end of the year.
But the stakes are also high for donors. That’s the view of Kate Bahen, managing director for Charity Intelligence Canada, a charity rating organization.
“Canadians are so trusting and generous,” Bahen said of how many people view December as a time to make donations. “And there are so many charities to give to.
“But before giving, my advice is to do your homework.”
Helping donors with that homework is Charity Intelligence’s purpose. Founded in 2006 as a way to provide donors with better information about charities, it rates groups on criteria such as financial transparency, reporting of results, demonstrated impact, need for funding and the amount of donations that go to their stated cause versus overhead and administration.
“We look for the charities that deliver the greatest impact, the biggest bang for the buck,” Bahen said.
For her, this means going beyond good intentions or, as she put it, discriminating between the “do-gooders and the good-doers.”
The basic question she wants to know is: Is what they are doing working? Is it doing the most good possible for the most people and in the most efficient and cost-effective way?
These are questions that can be hard for Canadians to answer. To help, each year, Charity Intelligence publishes a Top 100 list of the most impactful Canadian charities.
Bahen doesn’t fault Canadians for having difficulty finding answers. Getting information about charities can be hard. “Too many charities aren’t transparent when it comes to their finances,” she said.
By that she means it is hard, if not impossible, to see audited financial statements on many of their websites — what she calls the “gold standard” for all charities.
“It’s a challenge for Canadians to find out how many charities spend their donations,” she said, noting that Charity Intelligence also has difficulty getting that answer. “We ask and they sometimes say no,” she said.
The worst are religious groups. “For some reason, they see themselves as being above needing to do that,” she said, noting it doesn’t matter what religion the organization inquires about. “They are all the same. It’s like they see religion as private, that the public doesn’t need to know.”
Since religious groups receive a public benefit by being able to give tax receipts for donations, this is a problem.
The reluctance of some groups to disclose financial information is “unacceptable … it’s their ethical responsibility,” Bahen said.
Do your homework
At this time of year, when many Canadians are disposed to make donations, one thing Bahen counsels donors to not do is let all the appeals from charities pressure them into making hasty decisions. This is especially true when it comes to groups that do fundraising in malls or other public spaces.
Since many of these groups often want to sign people up to be monthly donors, that is not a good place to make such a big decision, she said.
Bahen’s bigger concern is the amount of money it costs for groups to use professional fundraisers. “What are the commission costs?” she asked about this fundraising tactic. “It’s hard to find out.”
Research done by Charity Intelligence shows that a donation given that way often ends up only covering the salary of the person asking for money. “If more donors knew that, they might not want to give,” she said.
Her advice: Don’t give into the pressure of the season to make a donation, take your time, do your homework.
“Find the charity that best aligns with your values, then do your research about it,” she said. “Give thought to your giving, just like you would to any other major purchase.”
Four international relief and development organizations that support Canadian Affairs made Charity Intelligence’s Top 100 list for 2025: Alongside Hope, Canadian Foodgrains Bank, Canadian Lutheran World Relief, and Mennonite Central Committee Canada.
