Canadians finding other ways to help charitable causes, SACPA told
By now, many Albertans are feeling “donor fatigue.”
Many charities are pressing them for donations, hoping they’ll respond during the lead-up to Christmas.
But how Canadians give is changing, an experienced Lethbridge fundraiser reports.
Brandie Lea, now a development officer at the University of Lethbridge, says the younger generation is showing the same generosity as many of their elders.
But many are responding online, she told the Southern Alberta Council on Public Affairs. And they may be alleviating crises overseas, instead of helping a charitable cause locally.
Albertans have built a reputation as generous givers, she noted Thursday, and Lethbridge donors rank as the province’s third-highest per capita — after two smaller communities, Wetaskiwin and Lacombe.
Yet some long-serving organizations as the Salvation Army are reporting less support for their Christmas campaigns in the malls this year, for reasons unknown. Perhaps, with more consumers using digital purchase systems, they have less cash in their pockets.
Lea suggested few Canadians realize the size of this nation’s nonprofit sector, though it’s heavily dependent on donations. Today, she said, it ranks third in the nation’s economy — raising less income than the financial and real estate corporations, and the nation’s manufacturers, but more than the oil and gas sector.
And while such “robber barons” as Andrew Carnegie and the Rockefellers later became the cornerstone of philanthropy in the U.S., it’s ordinary Canadians who support so many charitable causes in our time.
But now, forum participants said, many are being flooded with requests online and through the mail. Some charities ignore people’s requests to “unsubscribe” them or remove them from mailing lists.
And after writing cheques as they see fit, donors don’t appreciate being asked for more at the supermarket check-out.
The Canada Revenue Agency isn’t helping either, Lea was told. It refuses to recognize many organizations — including SACPA — as groups who can issue tax receipts for contributions. And tax officials have continued to “delist” other charitable causes. (Lea had no information on how Canada’s charitable deduction allowances compare with other developed nations).
But with right-leaning parties in some jurisdictions proposing cuts to public services, Lea warned non-profit agencies could also fall victim to government cuts.
That’s a “frightening” prospect, she said, if some social service groups fall by the way as others scramble to survive.
In addition to financial assistance, Lea pointed out Lethbridge-area residents also donate many hours of volunteer time to causes they support. She said Volunteer Lethbridge — representing perhaps one-quarter of the area’s registered charities — has calculated 500,000 hours of service donated.
But Lea said that doesn’t include time and money given to churches — entirely dependent on donations, unlike their counterparts in Europe — nor to advocacy groups or political parties.
As well as supporting causes that touch their lives, she said Canada’s younger generations are quick to respond to an emergency, whether that means helping a neighbour, or a crisis on another continent. Young Canadians are increasingly aware of what’s happening around the world, Lea said.
“And they can respond right away.”
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