Donations to the arts and culture in 2023
Plus: Fundraising challenges reported by cultural organizations
Last week, I examined high-level statistics on donations, donors, and sponsorships. In the article, I noted that there has been an increase in the value of charitable donations, despite a steady decline in the number of donors.
Today, I examine findings on donations to the arts and culture in 2023, as well as fundraising challenges reported by arts, heritage, and entertainment organizations.
The article is based on two main data sources:
Statistics Canada surveys of individual donors in 2018 and 2023, which can be broken down by type of recipient organization but has a moderate sample size. As a result, the margin of error of its estimates can be relatively large for smaller charitable sectors.
A Statistics Canada survey of organizations that seek donations from the public, conducted in late 2023.
Individual donations in 2023
Statistics Canada periodically surveys Canadians about their giving and volunteering. The most recent such survey was in 2023, and Statistics Canada released some information (but not a full dataset) in June of 2025. (I didn’t analyze this information earlier because I was waiting and hoping for additional details, which have not yet appeared. In the past, I did some fairly in-depth analysis of this survey. Example here, from 2013.)
I have examined the 2023 data to identify the amount and proportion of donations going to the arts and culture. (Note that the short article doesn’t define each sector, but the sectors are likely based on an international classification of not-for-profit organizations. The title “arts and culture” comes from the report itself.)
In dollar terms, the survey found that individuals donated $157 million to arts and culture organizations in 2023. This represents 1.2% of overall giving ($13.4 billion). When compared to overall giving, the arts and culture’s 1.2% share barely shows up on a graph, as shown below.
