Charities see decline in donations in 2023

Friendly Manitoba is living up to its name as a new report shows the province is the most charitable in the country.

But as some Manitobans continue to give, charities across Canada are seeing declines in the number of people donating. 

“Twenty-four per cent of Canadians are saying they need to turn to charities for basic services like food, shelter and clothing. At the same time, 57 per cent of charities are saying they don’t have enough resources to meet that demand now,” said Duke Chang, CEO of CanadaHelps.

The Salvation Army surpassing its $300,000 goal for its annual kettle campaign in Winnipeg, with the charity receiving nearly $330,000.

“Here in Winnipeg, we’ve actually been able to achieve our target,” said Major Al Hoeft, Divisional Secretary of Public Relations with the Salvation Army Prairie Division.

But when this year’s campaign first began in November, donations weren’t as strong.

“Early in the campaign we were concerned, things were going really slowly. The weather had something to do with that, because there was not a lot of snow people did not get into the Christmas spirit quite as much,” said Al Hoeft.

While donations were strong for the charity in Winnipeg, nationally, they’re still lagging behind.

The Salvation Army’s kettle campaign is set to wrap up at the end of the month, with a goal to raise $22 million across the country.

With the year about to end, the charity is just shy of its goal, having raised about $19 million as of Dec. 23.

“We are still tallying up the last few days prior to Christmas and getting those numbers together. We also get some last-minute donations between Christmas and New Year’s as people make last-minute donations to get them into this tax year.”

While there’s still some time for the Salvation Army to reach its goal, a report released this month from the Fraser Institute shows the percentage of tax filers who have donated to charities has hit a new low.

“It’s definitely a call to action for Canadians to open their hearts and hopefully donate some more as we see this unfortunate trend over the last decade and longer of charitable donations falling,” said Grady Munro, junior policy analyst with the Fraser Institute.

“We see the decline in the number of Canadians giving to charities is about 8 per cent, but those who have the ability to give, given the current economic conditions, are actually giving more to try to make up that difference,” said Chang.

According to data from the Fraser Institute, Manitoba not only had the highest percentage of tax filers who donated to charity in the 2021 tax year, but the province’s residents also donated the highest percentage of their income than any other province.

Despite this, charities all across Canada, including in Manitoba are still seeing fewer people give, as inflation and cost of living expenses eat away at Canadians’ paycheques.

It’s why charities say if people aren’t able to give money, people’s time is still valuable.

“We had so many people in the last couple of weeks step up to volunteer and support the work of the Salvation Army and that made a huge difference in us trying to achieve out target this year.”