On Giving Tuesday, the social impact sector’s race for donations enters its final stretch. 

Around 40 percent of all donations to Canadian charities come in the last six weeks of the year, and 2020 has been far from normal. Roughly 11,000 Canadians have died from COVID-19, a global movement against racism and police brutality has blossomed following several high-profile killings of Black and Indigenous people, and the U.S. remains socially and politically unstable after its most recent presidential election. The new year may bring further waves of COVID-19 and a pronounced economic recession. 

Around 40 percent of all donations to Canadian charities come in the last six weeks of the year, and 2020 has been far from normal.

Amid this upheaval, have Canadians become more generous in 2020? It’s difficult to say. Statistics Canada does release figures on the number of charitable donors who give each year, but there are so many other avenues for generosity that are more difficult to calculate. Corporate social responsibility programs, philanthropic grants, and endowments all fund charitable organizations, but donors also show their support through volunteering and donating products. 

What is clear is that the COVID-19 pandemic is changing the landscape of generosity in Canada. Cut off from in-person fundraising galas and marathons, charities were forced to adopt digital technology at a pace completely unfamiliar to them. The ancient practice of mutual aid has merged with social media platforms at an impressive scale, in response to the urgent needs of Canadians during the pandemic. And one particular subset of the social impact sector found themselves raising more money through individual donations alone than their entire budget in 2019. 

Here’s a closer look at three key generosity trends for 2021 – and where they may lead:

Charities should lean into digital fundraising

The Royal Canadian Legion’s branches have traditionally been funded through running their ubiquitous bars or holding events. But this revenue stream didn’t survive contact with the COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the Legion ventured into crowdfunding, and reached out to GoFundMe for help. “We’ve been able to work with them to get all their branches prepared to do social fundraising and crowdfunding,” says Caitlin Stanley, senior manager for Canada at GoFundMe. This wasn’t a formal partnership per se, but shows how one famously hidebound charity felt the need to diversify. 

Electronic payments systems have existed in the for-profit sector for years. Over the course of 2020, non-profits and charities also began to get on board. “We’re seeing a much larger focus from charities of all sizes to online fundraising and online events,” says Angela Kostenko, vice president of marketing at CanadaHelps. The digital giving platform saw unsurprising boosts in donations to hospitals and other healthcare organizations as the pandemic worsened. Food banks also received plenty of donations, Kostenko says, as well as mental health initiatives, homelessless shelters, and, curiously enough, zoos. “We saw that several zoos were out there fundraising because they could not rely on their ticket sales, so they were forced to close,” she says. Fundraising became critical for them: without ticket sales, these zoos could not afford to feed their animals. 

Whenever Stanley offers advice to prospective GoFundMe campaign organizers, she tells them to focus on their emotional appeal to donors. “To me, it comes down to the actual story,” she says. “Can you be compelling and concise and really transparent and make sure people know the urgency of it?” This is where digital giving platforms can vary significantly from traditional canvassing efforts. 

Organizations can include easy-to-read graphics, statistics, and videos explaining the impact of a person’s donations. They can offer updates on a fundraiser’s progress that ping every donor who’s already given, perhaps encouraging them to share the fundraising page or give more. “A lot of the fundraisers that we see do really well really leverage those updates and those high quality images and videos, and they start to get repeat donors, and it becomes a larger cause – as opposed to an in-the-moment campaign,” Stanley says. 

Pay attention to mutual aid networks

As non-profits and charities stepped up during the pandemic, a much older form of generosity resurged across Canada. Mutual aid networks, groups for people to exchange food and other essentials without reciprocity, sprang up on Facebook and other social media platforms in direct response to the catastrophe. Winnipeg clothing store owner Omar Kinnarath launched Mutual Aid Society (MAS) Winnipeg, one such account, in March. When Ryan Beardy, a community organizer and freelance journalist who acts as an administrator, first came across MAS Winnipeg’s Facebook page, it had several hundred followers. Now, it has around 5,800. “Mutual aid has a history of helping communities in times of need and illness and, obviously, this global pandemic,” Beardy says. “I believe Omar started it at the perfect time. I saw there was a huge need for assistance and goods and services.”

A quick scan of MAS Winnipeg’s Facebook page shows offers of fresh produce and feminine hygiene products, a call for an extra bag of coffee, a request for hot breakfast from someone with arthritis. Beardy says some residential care organizations have even messaged the group asking for hand sanitizer. MAS even offers a free weekly meal service for anyone living in Winnipeg. While there are frontline services and non-profits in Manitoba trying to help out, Beardy says the provincial government has mishandled the crisis: cutting aid to frontline staff while propping up businesses. He believes MAS Winnipeg’s popularity is a testament to what the city requires to get through the pandemic. “I would say it has really taken off as a result of the need,” Beardy says. 

And he doesn’t believe the momentum MAS Winnipeg has seen will slow into 2021.

What can mutual aid offer during the pandemic and in its aftermath? Some members of MAS Winnipeg believe the fundamental idea of reciprocal giving between communities is a better alternative to non-profits and social services. They see it as a replacement to, rather than the augmentation of, the social impact sector. Beardy says mutual aid can be a useful reactionary tool to a crisis, but would need to think about how the network could also act as a solution to long standing social problems. Collecting donations or warm clothing for unhoused people is something a mutual aid network could accomplish, he says, but the broader political shifts needed to end homelessness is a much bigger goal. “I think it’s on the multiple layers of government to try to look at policy and the way we treat our houseless people,” Beardy says. 

Beardy insists he does not want to play a saviour role — “I’m very humble in what I do,” Beardy says — but wants nonprofits and governments to listen to the unique needs of the communities they serve. “Let’s look at the underlying social problems, let’s put people before profit, and let’s look at strengthening communities, which are the foundation of our nations,” Beardy says. 

Allow donors to include you in their will

In March, during the first wave of COVID-19, estate lawyers saw many people rush to write their wills. Charities have used bequests and endowments for a long time, but it is, to put it mildly, a delicate subject. Paul Nazareth, vice-president of education and development at the Canadian Association of Gift Planners (CAGP), believes it also represented a missed opportunity. “This is hard for me to say because it’s awkward. It feels very dark,” he says. “A lot of people have passed away because of COVID. A lot of those people were generous donors who loved their charities of choice, but charities weren’t bold enough to ask them for planned gifts.” 

By ‘ask’, Nazareth isn’t saying charities should be calling up or emailing their donors for planned gifts. An ask can be as simple as a charity offering a place on their website to set up a planned gift — allowing donors to “self-identify,” he says. “People who care about an organization are banging down the door to do this,” Nazareth says. 

In 2021, Nazareth expects there will be another surge of estate planning even after the COVID-19 pandemic ends. With that, Nazareth says, people will start to reflect more deeply on their values — and what they hope their legacy can pay for after they’ve died. Estate lawyers are already gearing up for this shift. “They predict that there will be a huge run on wills that are reflective rather than reactive,” he says. 

Essential organizations can depend on individual giving

Charitable revenues may have fallen since the COVID-19 pandemic began, but Canada’s food banks are seeing a surge in revenue. In 2019, Food Banks Canada raised about $20 million through philanthropic organizations and corporate sponsorships. Tania Little, chief development and partnerships officer for Food Banks Canada, says the vast majority of their revenue — about 97 percent — doesn’t traditionally come from personal donations, but that changed in 2020. “We’re about eight months into the pandemic and, to date, Food Banks Canada [itself] has received pledges and support of over $126 million,” she says. About half of 2020’s earnings came from a few large government grants, Little says, but around $35 million of it was donated by individuals, with the remainder coming from corporate partnerships and philanthropy. “We really saw transformational giving,” she says. “We had a family give a $20 million commitment. That was our entire budget a year ago.” 

To put that $35 million worth of individual donations into perspective, Food Banks Canada only received about a half-million in 2019. Much of this year’s surge was thanks to Stronger Together, a virtual benefit concert series held in April on behalf of Food Banks Canada. In just 24 hours, the organization netted about $9 million in donations (and had their website crash under heavy traffic). “We’ve never done crisis or emergency appeals. This is the first time we’ve ever done it,” Little says. “But when we asked for help, people stood beside us and with us.” 

There were also less obvious reasons why the organization saw a spike in donations. Their 2020 campaign started with a high-profile $750,000 donation by Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively. “A little celebrity power helps to increase awareness and recognition,” Little says. Food Banks Canada also has a lot of corporate partners. One of them, Rogers Communications, made a corporate commitment to Food Banks Canada and then launched a pro-bono media campaign across all of their digital channels. So did another major partner, Subway Canada. “They developed an entire commercial and digital campaign to be able to then go out and engage their customers and the public in our cause,” she says. “That was all at their expense. We didn’t have to invest a penny.” 

2021 will be a year of uncertainty

Next year will be pivotal for the sector. Faced with a lingering pandemic, uncertain government support, and a plethora of overlapping social and economic crises, Canada’s social impact sector will be forced to adapt in ways it never imagined a year ago. Some of these adaptations may not be enough to save some organizations. What is clear is that Canadians are remaining generous in ingenious ways despite all of 2020’s instabilities. Donors are still opening their checkbooks, while companies are stepping up to help social impact organizations during this critical time. Meanwhile, one of the oldest sources of financial support for the sector — philanthropy — is adapting to the urgent needs of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

But the current moment will require more from philanthropists than the slow, sparing trickle of capital offered by legacy foundations. Some organizations are loosening restrictions on the funding they offer this year, but will that be enough? What are young philanthropists in particular doing to fund charities and causes during this critical time? 

Future of Good will speak to five of them about their impact — and their thoughts on wealth and philanthropy — in our next installment of this special report. 

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