Overview:
This is the second article of three exploring shifts in charitable giving in Canada.
Every year since 1991, the number of Canadians who claim charitable deductions on their income tax has gone down.
In 1991, it was 29 per cent. In 2023, the most recent year for which data are available, the number was just under 17 per cent.
“It’s been a straight-line decline,” said Bruce MacDonald, president and CEO of Imagine Canada, an umbrella organization for Canada’s charitable sector.
At the same time that is happening, the amount claimed as donations to Canadian charities has never been higher: $12.8 billion in 2023, up from $5.5 billion in 2000.
While that’s good news for charities and the people they serve, there’s a catch: around nine per cent of donors account for 71 per cent of the donations, and more than half are over the age of 60.
“In the next 10 years, there will be a fundamental shift in the way individuals give to charities,” MacDonald says. “It will happen whether charities want it to or not because it’s being driven by an uncontrollable factor — age.”
These older givers, and their parents, have been the backbone of charitable giving in Canada for decades, he said, noting they were faithful donors in good times and bad.
“There was a kind of Canada that created these generations of generous citizens,” MacDonald said. “But today we see a weakening of the conduits or institutions that fostered empathy, caring, kindness, neighbourhood and community.”
This includes the decline in religiosity and participation in religious groups.
“Many people today are growing up in secular households,” he said, noting that places of worship have traditionally been places where generosity has been taught and encouraged.
“If people aren’t going to places of worship in the same way, where’s the new learning ground for giving?” MacDonald asked. “Where will those conversations happen?”
In 2021, people who attended religious services regularly donated $1,838 per year on average, according to Statistics Canada. Those who did not attend as often or at all donated only $511 — a pattern that has been stable for decades.
The agency also reported that while those regular attendees represented only 11 per cent of the population, they contributed 40 per cent of all donated dollars to a broad range of charitable organizations.
Since attendance at religious services shows no sign of increasing, “we as a sector, have work to do, and we need to get started now,” MacDonald said of the need to instill a giving mentality in younger generations.
To illustrate his point, MacDonald used a sports analogy. “Our farm system for teaching generosity is drying up,” he said of places where people used to learn about giving.
“If fewer people are being exposed to giving in places like faith communities, there will be a decline as those values are not passed down … if fewer people are having those conversations at young ages, it’s likely going to be harder work down the road.”
Mike Duerksen, CEO of Buildgood, agrees. Duerksen, whose organization helps charities with fundraising, cited research showing the decline in giving is largely due to what the researcher called “weaker convictions.”
This includes the decline of religiosity and a decrease in social norms that support generosity.
“We need to find new ways to promote pro-social values,” said Duerksen. The government could also incentivize giving by offering more generous deductions for giving to charity, he added.
Duerksen, who is a churchgoer, remembers seeing his parents donate during services by putting money into the offering plate.
“It was a way of life for them,” he said. His own giving today is done online.
“My kids don’t see me be generous in the same way since my giving is all online … we need to be more intentional about talking to the next generation about the importance of generosity.”
