Fewer charitable donors in Canada, but more money given
Also: Highlights from a national sponsorship study
For this week’s article, I’ve analyzed datasets and reports on donors, donations, and sponsorships in Canada – for all sectors, not just the arts. In coming weeks, I’ll examine what the data say about the arts.
Inflation has affected charitable organizations’ expenditures and, along with other factors, the ability and willingness of many Canadians to donate to charities. Indeed, there has been a steady decline in the number of donors. Despite this, the value of donations has increased. Sponsorship levels appear to have increased, based on findings from a relatively small survey with shifting respondent numbers and types. Do these trends leave organizations more vulnerable to a potential economic downturn, the loss of key donors, the loss of an important sponsor, or other surprises?
The article is based on multiple data sources:
Individuals’ tax filings (which is an important data source but cannot be broken down into the types of organizations supported, because not every taxfiler submits the full details of their donations)
A Statistics Canada survey of individual donors (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 private survey of sponsorships (which has quite a small sample size but is the only source I found on this topic. The survey had 303 respondents, including sponsors, sponsorship recipients, and sponsorship agencies. Only 6% of respondents completed the survey in French, which calls into question the survey’s national representativeness.)
The first two datasets currently have 2023 as their most recent data year, while the sponsorship survey is from 2024.
1997 to 2023: Steady decline in charitable donors but an increase in the value of donations
The following graph shows that the value of charitable donations has increased substantially since 1997. In fact, charitable donations were 72% higher in 2023 than in 1997 (even after adjusting for inflation). The value of donations to all types of charities was $12.8 billion in 2023, compared with $7.4 billion in 1997 (adjusted for inflation).
More recently, the value of donations to all types of charities was slightly higher in 2023 ($12.8 billion) than before the pandemic ($11.9 billion in 2019, adjusted for inflation).
The graph also demonstrates the slow but steady decline in the number of taxfilers claiming charitable donations, resulting in a 4% decrease between 1997 and 2023. The decrease is amplified when expressed as a percentage of all taxfilers: the proportion claiming charitable donations was 26% in 1997 and 17% in 2023.
Behind the paywall, I outline the key statistics in 1997 and 2023, the median and average donations between 1997 and 2023, findings from StatsCan’s survey of donors, and findings from a survey of sponsors and sponsorship recipients.