Charitable giving drops to 20-year-low; Manitobans still give most

Author Sharlene Gandhi

Public participation in charitable giving is at its lowest point in the last twenty years, according to new research by the Fraser Institute. 

The public policy think tank released The Generosity Index in early December, which measures the proportion of tax filers in each province who indicate that they have donated to charity, as well as the percentage of aggregate income that is donated. 

Manitoba topped the rankings for tax filers donating to charity, although Albertans were likely to make larger donations in dollar value. 

Between 2002 and 2022, the percentage of Canadian tax filers donating to charity has dropped by eight percentage points. 

Earlier this year, CanadaHelps published similar findings for the amount of donations flowing through their platform. Although CanadaHelps also found that fewer Canadians were making charitable donations, they also found that the total dollar value of donations across the country continued to rise – albeit marginally. 

Blackbaud, on the other hand, found that major donations were the biggest drivers of revenue. More than half of charities surveyed that reported an increase in income cited major gifts, such as a large corporate donation or a singular major philanthropic donation, as the main contributors. 

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  • Sharlene Gandhi is the Future of Good editorial fellow on digital transformation.

    Sharlene has been reporting on responsible business, environmental sustainability and technology in the UK and Canada since 2018. She has worked with various organizations during this time, including the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the Pentland Centre for Sustainability in Business at Lancaster University, AIGA Eye on Design, Social Enterprise UK and Nature is a Human Right. Sharlene moved to Toronto in early 2023 to join the Future of Good team, where she has been reporting at the intersections of technology, data and social purpose work. Her reporting has spanned several subject areas, including AI policy, cybersecurity, ethical data collection, and technology partnerships between the private, public and third sectors.

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