Overview:
This is the first article of three exploring shifts in charitable giving in Canada.
For most of the postwar period, Canada was a country of relatively stable expectations, according to pollster David Coletto of Abacus Data.
“People believed that if they worked hard, saved responsibly, and made reasonably good decisions, things would unfold along a path that felt predictable,” Coletto wrote in his newsletter in May.
“But when you layer a pandemic on top of a housing crisis, on top of inflation, on top of climate disasters, on top of technological disruption, on top of demographic strain, and then add a U.S. president openly threatening your country with tariffs and annexation fantasies, something shifts in the public psyche,” he stated. “It is not just stress. It is erosion.”
Coletto called this the “precarity mindset,” a mindset focused on “not knowing whether the ground beneath you will hold.” Ninety per cent of Canadians feel this way, believing that instability and uncertainty “are the new normal.”
This sense of insecurity has implications for the economy, he stated.
“When people feel uncertain about the future, they begin pulling inward. They delay major life decisions. They spend more cautiously. They seek emotional safety over aspiration,” he said. “They defer. They hesitate. They seek reassurance before commitment.”
This sense of precarity plays out in various ways, such as cutting down on things like eating out, going to movies, upgrading furniture, taking vacations — and donating to charities.
It is that last thing that concerns those who work in Canada’s charitable sector. This includes Bruce MacDonald, president and CEO of Imagine Canada, an umbrella organization for Canadian charities.
The precarity mindset became apparent when Imagine Canada recently did focus groups with younger people about giving. Participants were asked what they would do if they came into a large amount of money. How many would give some of that unexpected windfall to charity?
“The percentage of respondents who said ‘yes, they would give some to charity,’ was zero,” MacDonald said. The reasons given for not donating included the need to pay down mortgages, to deal with household expenses or to pay off student debt.
“What we heard was their intention to use the money for everyday living,” he said.
Something similar is being heard by Chris Bosch and Lon Wong of Chisel Consulting, which works with leaders of charitable organizations to help them strategize for the future.
“The economy is doing the charitable sector no favours,” said Bosch, founder and principal of Chisel, about how many Canadians are curbing their giving.
Canadians still recognize the value of charities, added Wong, a lead consultant at Chisel. They are just more careful about how much they donate.
“People want to contribute, but they are matching requests for donations against their own needs, to see how they match up on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
While this means charities are facing challenges when it comes to raising money, this does not mean Canadians are not giving — they are just giving differently.
“Maybe I have rose-coloured glasses, but I don’t think Canadians are less generous,” said Bosch. “People are now giving to help out their children or other family members … the channels for generosity are changing.”
In addition to that, newcomers to Canada are sharing with family back in their home countries through remittances, he said. This is a form of generosity not captured in traditional measurements like claiming charitable donations on income taxes.
Mike Duerksen, CEO of Buildgood, an organization that helps charities raise funds, notes high living costs are affecting the “next generation of donors.”
“Younger people are being squeezed economically,” he said, noting it is hard to think of making a donation when people have to pay so much to fill up their cars with gas.
This time of precarity is only adding to the general decline in the number of people donating to charity, Duerksen added.
“The number of people who are giving is trending downwards, with fewer active donors,” he said.
