“We’re actually at a point where we need to reverse that trend,” says Michelle Gaudet, vice-president of public policy and community engagement at Imagine Canada, an umbrella organization for a number of Canadian charities. “The demand for services is growing and changing. Traditional sources of income and investment are stagnating, if not diminishing.”
If charities want to draw more volunteers, they will have to address their concerns, Ms. MacKenzie says.
Many savvy organizations fulfill volunteers’ needs by getting to know them and their talents, she says. And they’re also more open to flexible schedules — volunteering by contributing to an email campaign should be just as valued and encouraged as scrubbing pots at a soup kitchen.
Two trends are making life more difficult for charities in collecting donations: Firstly, the falling amount of money Canadians are giving and, secondly, their heightened expectations on organizations to be effective and offer convenient means of giving.
Wednesday’s Angus Reid survey of 1,000 Canadians polled online last month found about 57% of Canadians donated the same amount of money to charity in 2010 as last year, while 34% gave less. Only 8% of Canadians increased their donations this year. Canadians 55 years or older were most likely to give, with 67% having donated, while fewer than 48% of Canadians aged 18 to 34 gave money to charity in 2010. About 41% of respondents said they will give the same amount next year as they did in 2010, and 22% plan not to give at all.
The lion’s share of respondents, 81%, said their financial situation is the same or worse now than it was at the same time in 2009, which may offer some insight into the ongoing decline in charitable giving.
While the survey suggests the recession might have played into the decline in donations, an analysis of Statistics Canada numbers show that, when adjusted for inflation, the declines were already apparent in 2007—before the recession hit. The peak year for donations in Canada was 2006.
The average giver today is also more careful about where they lend their hands and where they put their money, says Kate Bahen, managing director of Charity Intelligence, a watchdog for Canadian charities.
“As we have the proliferation of social media, we are at the same time going to give people the tools to make intelligent decisions,” she says.
The organization has a list of recommended charities for 2010, including groups that have a proven impact and are deemed transparent, according to standards set by Charity Intelligence. “We’re never going to overcome the heart, but we want to get the head as much as possible,” says Greg Thomson, director of research at the watchdog group.
Entrepreneurs have been successful in raising the funds for development initiatives — perhaps more so than governments — and donors now expect the same creativity and level of innovation from charities, says Michael Green, economist and co-author of Philanthrocapitalism: How Giving Can Save the World.
“Kiva was started five years ago in someone’s garage, and now it has lent over $100-million, and I reckon they’ll get to $1-billion by 2013, 2014,” he says, referring to a micro-finance charity that sees donors lend money to communities in developing countries. “This is extraordinary, unprecedented growth of a non-profit. And that’s because it’s been able to harness the new technology of social networks, but also because it’s offering people what they want — that rich experience and knowledge of knowing where their money’s gone.”
