A quarter of Canadian volunteers expect to cut down or stop altogether, new report finds

Canada’s skyrocketing cost-of-living crisis is forcing many current and would-be volunteers to reconsider serving their communities, according to a report from business software company Sage. 

In a joint survey of 1,000 Canadian volunteers and donors with Leger, a major Canadian market research firm, Sage found that two-thirds are concerned about the financial health of themselves or their families. As a result, 26 per cent of respondents said they would either stop volunteering, reduce their hours, or keep volunteering yet support fewer charities. 

“While Canadians are passionate about supporting causes, the economic realities are forcing them to rethink how they are giving back,” the Sage report said. “As a result, nonprofits are at a crossroads to determine how they are cultivating ongoing relationships and fostering commitments going forward.” 

This data comes as many Canadian non-profits and charities who depend on volunteerism are finding it increasingly difficult to attract and retain new volunteers. According to Volunteer Canada data, roughly two-thirds of organizations dependent on volunteers cannot find enough people to help out. Just over half of organizations say it is difficult to retain volunteers, according to Statistics Canada data, with 42 per cent saying volunteers aren’t able to commit to work long-term. 

Megan Conway, president and CEO of Volunteer Canada, said she isn’t surprised by the Sage report’s findings. Since last September, she’s heard anecdotally that volunteer-dependent organizations were having trouble bringing back volunteers who’d left during the pandemic. Those concerns became louder and louder throughout the winter of 2022, and into the spring of 2023. 

“It’s not episodic, it’s not localized,” Conway said. “It seems to be widespread. And it is a problem.”

To make matters worse, Conway said, overall demand for frontline non-profit and charity services is up 32 per cent. This includes food banks, who have seen a spike in use since the pandemic began. An annual report from Food Banks Canada released last fall, which considered data from over 4,750 food banks and community organizations across Canada, found service use was 15 per cent higher in March 20222 than 2021. When compared to March 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic began, it was 35 per cent higher. 

The reasons for the volunteer shortage range from Sage’s findings around economic instability to a lack of information for volunteers who want to give back. Conway also said the current criminal record check process, a requirement intended to prevent abuse by volunteers of vulnerable clients like children or seniors, can be onerous. As a result of these problems, Conway said, organizations are going back to the drawing board on volunteer-run services.

“They’re rethinking how they’re delivering those services,” Conway said. 

In the face of rising demand and volunteer shortages, Statistics Canada data found about 17 per cent of volunteer-dependent organizations are cutting programs entirely, while 33 per cent were forced to modify or reduce service. One case is the Meals on Wheels program in South Surrey and White Rock, B.C., which shut down in October 2022. The remaining volunteers were diverted to Meals on Wheel’s remaining routes in the Metro Vancouver area, a spokesperson for Care B.C., who oversees the program, told CBC News. 

Arts and sports organizations are also particularly vulnerable to these problems. Conway knows from experience. She has ridden in the Cambridge Tour de Grand, a charity bicycle ride in Ontario run by a committee of volunteers. Its 26th ride was scheduled for June 2023, but organizers suddenly pulled the plug.

“After 25 years, long serving volunteer members of the organizing committee have retired and it proved difficult to recruit volunteers to serve on a new committee,” the now-defunct website of the Tour de Grand reads. It also cited other problems, including cuts to funding from Cambridge’s community grants program, high costs for essential services, and expensive insurance.

Meanwhile, youth-serving organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters Canada are also feeling the volunteer crunch. Jennifer Arp, the organization’s interim president and CEO, said BBBS Canada served more than 40,000 children and youth prior to COVID-19. Today, that number is around 25,000, and a lack of volunteers is one of the reasons BBBS Canada hasn’t been able to return to its pre-COVID operating capacity. 

“Our largest volunteer base is the 18 to 27-year-old age bracket,” Arp explained, “and we know what the cost of living is like. We know that youth are having to take multiple jobs in order to be able to afford to live, and that does impact our ability to be able to recruit.” 

Sage’s numbers weren’t all bad news for the sector. Around 47 per cent of respondents said they plan to volunteer up to 30 hours a year, a drop of two percentage points from the previous year. When asked why they would continue volunteering, around half said it was because the cause they serve is important to their community. Another third said they give back either because their cause is important to Canada, or because they (or their family or friends) have an emotional connection to a charity. 

Yet the impact of losing even more current or potential volunteers could devastate non-profits and charities dependent on their work. While events like the Cambridge Tour de Grand and services like Meals on Wheels are already shutting down, a further reduction in the volunteer pool could have long-term impacts on the resiliency of children served by organizations like BBBS.

“That relationship, that caring adult — that’s something that would be missing for a child if we’re not recruiting those volunteers,” Arp said. “And that’s impacting that child’s future.” 

Tell us this made you smarter | Contact us | Report error